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ICHICAGO PUBLIC SCHOOLS 



Reports on 
Underfed Children 



Reprinted from 
Minutes of the Board of Education of the City of Chicago 

October 21, 1908 

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CHICAGO PUBLIC SCHOOLS 



Reports on 
Underfed Children 



Reprinted from 

Minutes of the Board of Education of the City of Chicago, 

October 21, 1908 



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Reports on Underfed Children 



Chicago, October 19, 1908. 

To the Board of Education of the City of 
Chicago. 

Ladies and Gentlemen : 

I transmit to you herewith the report 
of the Special Committee appointed upon 
the resolution of Mr. Spiegel to secure in- 
formation concerning underfed children. 
Appended thereto is the opinion of At- 
torney for the Board, Mr. Frank Ham- 
lin, stating that the Board of Education, 
under the law, has no right to expend 
inoney for anything except educational 
purposes. The report having reached the 
press before it could be placed before you, 
it was considered necessary to act in the 
matter as speedily as possible, as it 
seemed at first that this report was de- 
scribing unusual conditions. 

His Honor, the Mayor, called a con- 
ference at his office at which the Health 
Commissioner, the superintendents of 
various charitable institutions and relief 
and aid societies and your President were 
present and discussed matters. While it 
did not appear that the conditions de- 
scribed were unusual, but will be always 
found to exist to a greater or less extent 
in a city of a large population, the desire 
has been to minimize this as much as 
possible. 

The chief difficulty in finding this 
class of people lies in the fact that there 
are a number of poor people who are 
too proud to beg. Others are too disso- 
lute, negligent and lazy to provide prop- 
erly for their children. While it is dif- 
ficult to find the first mentioned, the dis- 
solute and lazy are easily encouraged if 
the doors* of charity are thrown wide 
open. Two methods, therefore, have been 
proposed to find the really needy. One 
was to discover them through the inspect- 
ing physicians of the Health Department, 
at the schools, to be augmented with 
nurses who should visit the houses and 
examine into conditions there. 

The other was an appeal to the prin- 
cipals of the schools, which I sent out in 
a circular letter last week, requesting 
them to report all cases of want to the 
Truant Officers of the Compulsory Edu- 
cation Department, to turn over to the 
charity associations for relief. Up to the 
present writing, the Compulsory Educa- 
tion Department has furnished in this way 
3,021 names and addresses of children in 
1,419 families. According to all informa- 
tion received this works satisfactorily 
without becoming a disturbing factor in 
the conduct of the schools. The differ- 
ent charitable institutions are attending 
to the reported cases, and are alleviating 
want and distress as quickly as the cases 
are brought to their notice. 

Respectfully submitted, 
(Signed) Otto C. Schneider, 

President. 



October 1, 1908. 

COMMITTEE ON SCHOOL MANAGEMENT. 

Board of Education of the City of Chi- 
cago. 
Ladies and Gentlemen : 

I have not attempted to make any de- 
tailed investigation of the matters which 
are contained in the reports of Superin- 
tendent Bodine and Doctor MacMillan, 
which are made to you contemporaneous 
with this report. 

It is frequently a very difficult matter to 
state clearly just what is an educational 
purpose for which the expenditure of pub- 
lic money will be justified. I do not 
think there can be any question, how- 
ever, about the fact that it would not be 
lawful for the Board of Education to un- 
dertake the feeding of children directly, 
and to expend money for that purpose, 
no matter how meritorious in their judg- 
ment such a purpose might be. 

I note, however, that in the City of 
New York this matter has been handled 
by the Board of Education con-jointly 
with public-spirited individuals, and that 
arrangements have been made for the fur- 
nishing of funds necessary for such a pur- 
pose by public-spirited individuals and 
by certain organizations which have been 
interested in this matter. 

If such an arrangement could be made 
in Chicago, there could be no objection 
from a legal standpoint for the Board ol 
Education to give these individuals or in- 
stitutions the benefit of the investigation 
which they have made and could co- 
operate with them in so far as it was 
proper and appropriate, without affecting 
the government of the schools in carrying 
out this work. It is quite clear, however, 
that the direct appropriation of money 
on the part of the Board of Education 
would not be legal. 

Yours very truly, 

Frank Hamlin, 
Attorney, Board of Education. 
To the Board of Education of the City of 

Chicago. 

Whereas, In certain sections of our 
city the educational work in the public 
schools is very greatly hampered, and 
the progress of all the pupils is seriously 
retarded because of the impoverished con- 
ditions, mental and physical, of some of 
the pupils (entitled to public school ad- 
vantages), due to want, lack of nourish- 
ment and the absence of proper care ; 
and, 

Whereas, It is the opinion of those ex- 
pert in the conduct of public educational 
systems that to alleviate such conditions 
is to promote the efficiency of the schools 
in a most far-reaching and beneficial 
manner; 

Therefore be it Resolved, It is the sense 
of this Board that it cause to be made a 
thorough and exhaustive investigation 
into such conditions, together with the 
best remedies to be adopted to remove or 
relieve them, including what has been 
done in other large public school educa- 
tional centers, and also what legal re- 
strictions and powers apply to this Board 
and concern this subject matter. 

(Signed) Modie J. Spiegel. 



Chicago, September 30, 1908. 
To the School Management Committee. 
Ladies and Gentlemen : 

Your Sub-Cominittee, to whom was re- 
ferred the resolution of Trustee Spiegel, 
authorizing an investigation of conditions 
among underfed school children in Chi- 
cago, and requesting a recommendation 
for the best means of relief, respectfully 
reports : 

That facts are herewith submitted 
showing the actual conditions among the 
children in question at school and at 
home. 

That 3'our Sub-Committee believes, 
after a careful investigation of the sub- 
ject and the systems for the relief of 
similar conditions in other cities, that the 
pathetic conditions in Chicago are such 
as to wari'ant relief either by the Board 
of Education or some municipal, state or 
coimty authority, or by private philan- 
thropy. 

If it be deemed illegal or inexpedient 
for the Board of Education to appropriate 
funds for the purpose of relieving the 
suffering among underfed school children, 
we recommend co-operation with private 
philanthropy, to the extent of the . free 
use of rooms and equipment in various 
districts where relief centers are needed. 
Respectfully submitted, 

W. L. BODINE, 

D. P. MacMillan. 

REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF COM- 
PULSORY EDUCATION ON THE SUBJECT 
OF INDIGENT CHILDREN. 

To the Members of the School Manage- 
ment CoMimittee. 
Ladies and Gentlemen : 

In compliance with the instructions con- 
tained in the resolution introduced by 
Trustee Modie J. Spiegel and adopted by 
your Committee, I respectfully report 
that this department has made an in- 
vestigation of conditions £;.mong indigent, 
under-fed school children in Chicago. 
Truant officers canvassed the schools and 
social settlements, and visited many 
homes in districts where great poverty 
exists. Principals, teachers, parents, chil- 
dren, charity workers and sociological 
experts were consulted. The method of 
obtaining information has been systematic, 
accurate and thorough. Actual conditions 
have been seen. Facts are presented. 

Introductory. 

1. Five thousand children who attend 
the schools of Chicago are habitually 
hungry. They often go to school break- 
fastless, and at times go to bed hungry. 
As a result of being under-fed and living 
in insanitary homes they have become 
victims of malnutrition — which creates 
subnormal children. 

2. I further report that 10,000 other 
children in the city — while not such ex- 
treme cases as the aforesaid — do not 
have sufficient nourishing food ; that the 
lack of "a square deal and a square 
meal" at home often presents the pathetic 
sequel of the child who is backward at 
study and forward in delinquency. 

3. Last year, during the financial and 
industrial depression, the County Agent 
furnished rations that saved 11,097 chil- 
dren from starvation. In addition to this, 



6,000 others were temporarily relieved by 
church societies, neighbors, relatives and 
relief organizations. Conditions have im- 
proved, but there are 15,000 under-fed 
children in Chicago today who do not 
have three full meals a day. The Child 
Study Department has examined 10,090 
specific cases. 

4. In the canvass made by Truant 
Officers, mothers were repeatedly found 
who go to bed hungry themselves in 
order that their children may have a 
scant breakfast next day. This self 
denial is habitual heroism in some large 
families, where the rations are scarce — 
particularly among widows and deserted 
wives. 

5. The question of food is not the only 
question to be considered. Many children 
lack shoes and clothing. Many have no 
beds to sleep in. They cuddle together 
on hard floors. The majority of the in- 
digent children live in damp, unclean or 
over-crowded homes that lack proper 
ventilation and sanitation. Here, in the 
damp, ill-smelling basements, there is only 
one thing regarded as cheaper than rent 
— and that is the life of a child. 

6. The investigation reveals the fact 
that girls stand hunger better than boys. 
Their pride makes them more reluctant 
to admit to their teachers that they are 
faint from lack of food. Teachers, prin- 
cipals and truant officers, moved to pity, 
have often personally relieved acute cases 
that called for immediate attention. 

7. We find that a large number of 
children have only bread, saturated in 
water for breakfast day after day ; that 
the noon meal is bread or bananas, and 
an occasional luxury of soup made from 
pork bones ; that children often frequent 
South Water Street begging for dead 
fowl in the crates, or decayed fruit ; that 
others have been found searching for 
food in alley garbage boxes, and several 
cases were reported where hungry chil- 
dren at school picked up crusts of bread 
or fragments of lunch which other chil- 
dren had thrown away. 

8. Many mothers are working for a 
pittance, sewing pants for the cheap 
clothing trade — some for fifty cents a day, 
and only working three days a week. 
Many of these are widows with families 
of four and five children, and some con- 
vert their insanitary homes into sweat 
shops. The environment, at times (when 
a sick child is suffering from a suppressed 
case of contagious disease), is a menace 
to public health. The under-paid mother, 
in many of the cases mentioned, has 
produced the under-fed child. 

9. Some children have admitted that 
they have almost forgotten the taste of 
butter ; that lard has become the substi- 
tute, and meat an occasional memory. 

10. Malnutrition has been produced in 
some instances by poorly cooked food. 
Many children are compelled to cook their 
own meals. The city has many deserted 
women who have large families to sup- 
port. These women respond to the early 
morning call of industrialism, and do not 
go home to lunch. The children go home 
and *cook the mid-day meal, and fre- 
quently breakfast. When there is noth- 
ing to cook, they go hungry. 

11. Following the investigation into 



homes, we found that the cause of the 
poverty, which has produced so many un- 
der-fed school children in Chicago, is due 
to intemperance among parents, illness of 
the bread-winner, lack of employment, 
wife desertion, laziness among fathers, or 
the constant increase in the cost of living 
and increase in the family, without a 
corresponding increase in wages. In some 
homes both parents were found in a state 
of alcoholic prostration. The home from 
which the hungry child comes must be 
reached. Social conditions are to be con- 
sidered. 

12. Cases were found where children 
not only went to bed hungry, but got 
up hungry. A few went without food for 
over twenty-four hours last winter. 

13. Occasionally, children sicken and 
die from lack of prompt medical atten- 
tion, and in some homes contagious 
diseases wei-e suppressed and physicians 
never summoned. 

14. An investigation of the free break- 
fast service at the Oliver Goldsmith 
School, maintained by the Jochanna Lodge 
shows that it has passed the experi- 
mental stage, and has been successful in 
results. It has improved the interest of 
pupils in their attendance and study. It 
has checked demotion and increased pro- 
motion in grades. It has also bettered 
the children of the poor, physically and 
mentally. The principal in charge be- 
lieves that the successful solution of the 
problem is to give indigent children the 
physical, rather than the psychological, 
cure ; that the practical is better than the 
theoretical. A report of the Dore School 
lunch service is also submitted. 

15. A canvass among experts in soci- 
ology, charity workers and others shows 
a vast difference of opinion. Some believe 
the plan of free breakfast service at 
school a feasible step in progressive phi- 
lanthropy. Others — particularly charity 
workers — oppose it emphatically. They 
believe it will increase dependency and 
cause parents to shirk their responsibility. 
While experts disagree, the fact remains 
that thousands of children go hungry, and 
Chicago is confronted with the plain duty 
of the humanitarian to devise some 
method of relief. 

16. Lack of shoes is one of the causes 
of temporary absence^ from school. The 
limited service of the School Children's 
Aid Society seems to be inadequate to 
meet conditions. The County Agent and 
the charity organizations have been of ma- 
terial assistance on meeting the emergency 
during months when the School Chil- 
dren's Aid Society had no relief service. 

17. The discrimination of employers 
in refusing to employ children between 
14 and 16 has resulted in 4,900 juveniles 
being thrown out of employment. If 
these boys and girls could work, they 
could assist at home in relieving the 
hunger of younger brothers and sisters 
who are at school. 

18. This special census of under-fed 
children applies only to children between 
6 and 16 years of age. There are several 
thousand more children under 6 who are 
also under-fed, and who are too young 
to attend school. 

19. The intemperance of some fathers, 
which caused poverty and under-fed 



children, has been traced to b*d cooking 
at home, which drove them to drink. The 
theory of Jacob Riis, the New York soci- 
ologist, has been corroborated by a score 
of fathers who talked with representa- 
tives of this department. 

20. The city is filled with abandoned 
wives, whose daily life is one of abject 
slavery to home, children and industrial- 
ism. Many over-worked and under-fed 
mothers are becoming physical wrecks, 
and their children are doomed to eventual 
dependency in institutions, or among rela- 
tives or foster parents. 

21. The question among experts is, 
"shall there be relief in the home for all, 
or relief in the school for the child?" 

The above is a substance of what tru- 
ant officers ascertained. The report in 
detail follows : 

Conditions in Chicago. 

Reports from truant officers, principals 
and teachers, supplemented by visitations 
of homes in many instances, show that 
there is an average of 4,664 under-fed 
children attending the schools of Chicago 
who are habitually hungry from lack of 
nourishing food. Many often go to school 
breakfastless, or with such a scant morn- 
ing meal of dry bread or crackers, that 
they suffer from malnutrition, and lose 
interest in study. During the period of 
financial depression last year, the County 
Agent relieved 3,69 9 families, averaging 
three children each — a total of 11,097 
children, who would otherwise have suf- 
fered from starvation. Of these families, 
880 were deserted women and 2,819 were 
families. Nine-tenths were widows who 
were struggling, without friends or rela- 
tives who could aid them. With these 
figures and the canvass made by truant 
officers among the school, social settle- 
ments, charity organizations and homes 
as a basis, I estimated the total number 
of school children in Chicago who do not 
receive three square meals daily at 15,000. 
Many are cared for by charity organiza- 
tions, relatives, church societies, etc., 
while others, from pride, struggle along 
on one or two meals per day. A con- 
servative estimate of the number of child 
victims of malnutrition (who are in im- 
mediate need of free breakfast service 
and who would gratefully accept it) is 
5,000. This makes allowance for a few 
hundred who may not have been re- 
ported. The greater number is on the 
West and South Sides, respectively. The 
North Side has the minimum. 

The districts, where there is the great- 
est poverty, and where there is the largest 
percentage of indigent pupils who lack 
sufficient food, are in the vicinity of the 
following schools : 

West Side — Foster, 200; Washburne, 
203; Swing, 100; Jackson, 150; Jewish 
Manual Training. 100; Goldsmith, 70; 
(lunch service) ; Dore, 50 (lunch service) ; 
Dante, 56; Goodrich, 50; Garfield. 51; 
Smyth, 49 ; Rogers, 41 ; Montefiore, 25 ; 
Tilden. 35 ; St. Stanislaus, 150 ; St. Hed- 
wig, 75 ; St. Mary's of the Angels, 60 ; 
Kosciuszko, 50; Peabody, 30; Wells, 37; 
Drummond, 50 ; Burr, 60. 

South Side — Seward, 200; Haven, 100; 
Harrison. 150; Moseley, 100; Jones, 87; 
M. Sheridan, 93 ; McClellan, 92 ; Keith, 



40; Brenan, 02; Fallon, 54; Healy 30; 
Holden, 17; Greene, 26; Libby, 80; Ful- 
ton, 25; Graham, 31; Hendricks, 20; 
Armour, 35 ; McAllister, 28 ; Sullivan, 25 ; 
Clay, 30. 

North Side — Stanley, 80 ; Schiller, 68 ; 
Jenner, 65 ; Adams, 54 ; Kinzie, 40 ; 
Ogden, 38 ; Prescott, 29 ; Mulligan, 20. 

Scattering reports from 300 other 
public and private schools, where the 
number varies from 2 to 10, have been 
obtained. Names and addresses of many, 
obtained in confidence, are on file in this 
department. The poor are sensitive. 
While specific cases of destitution are 
named in this report, I believe private 
rights, should be respected. For that rea- 
son names and addresses are omitted. 

The districts in the city where there 
are few, if any, under-fed children are : 
Ravenswood, Sheridan Park, Bdgewater, 
Kenwood and Hyde Park. In Austin the 
children were found to be normal, well- 
fed children as a rule, but a number of cases 
were found where children suffered from 
poorly cooked food. In South Chicago, 
particularly, the demand for shoes ex- 
ceeds the supply, especially in the Sulli- 
van and Thorp districts. In thousands of 
cases the lack of sufficient nourishing 
food was paralleled by lack of shoes. In 
many other instances there was lack of 
clothing. In 80 per cent of the cases the 
environment of the home was typical of 
poverty. Many children have no beds 
except upon the floor. They live in quar- 
ters that are damp, ill-smelling and poorly 
ventilated, such as basements, small 
rooms or crowded apartments in tene- 
ments, or hovels in the rear of flat build- 
ings, or small frame or brick buildings, 
where lives and rents are cheap. There 
is indifference to hygienic necessity, and 
many of the homes are in a wretched 
condition of squalor and filth, unfit for 
habitation. Rats swarm in some base- 
ment homes where children sleep upon 
the floor. In a few yardless homes 
families of from three to six children 
live in two small rooms, with a pig, a 
goat or several dogs. In one home on 
the Stock Yards district three children 
were found in a filthy bed, with four 
dogs curled among them. Out of 3,413 
individual truants reported to the depart- 
ment last year, 949 came from homes 
where the sanitary conditions were ex- 
tremely bad. 

A FEW THINGS SEEN BY TRUANT OFFICERS. 

Here are some specific cases of extreme 
destitution found : 

.4. Armour School District — Father out 
of work, mother sick and not a scrap of 
food in the house. Five children ; th^^ee 
half naked and one garbed only in an 
undershirt, crying for bread. For three 
days they had lived on tea — no bread, 
milk nor sugar. 

B. Kinzie School District — Father in 
ill-health ; had worked only three weeks 
in seven years. A delicate mother sup- - 
ported the family by washing when she 
could work. Six children who often went 
to bed hungry and lived on one meal a 
day. 

C. Jenner School District — One mother 
supports a family of four children on 
$2.50 a week, sewing pants. Husband in- 
capacitated by tuberculosis. 



D. Stock Yards District — Mother earns 
living for family when father is on a 
spree. Four children, all in school. When 
father is sober and at work, mother 
lapses into intemperance. 

E. Burr School District — One Polish 
mother takes care of a family of nine, 
including her 85-year-old father. Goes 
without sufficient food herself, at times, 
so that others may have enough. 

F. Keith School District — Many fathers 
and mothers habitually sleep late morn- 
ings, and children often go to school 
without breakfast rather than be tardy. 

G. Tilden School District — Little house- 
keeper — oldest girl of 14 years — who 
cheers her widower father by cooking 
for five other children. Fairly good sup- 
ply of food, but she has limited knowl- 
edge of cooking. Never took domestic 
science at school. 

H. Fallon School District — One case 
wht^re father and mother both drank. 
Five children, who often cooked their own 
meals. 

I. Drummond School District — Family 
of seven ; no food in the house ; father out 
of work ; went to the lake to commit 
suicide, but changed his mind and com- 
mitted a misdemeanor in order to be 
locked up at West Chicago Avenue Po- 
lice Station and get a prison meal. Lack 
of shoes and hunger often interfered with 
children's school attendance. 

J. Seward School District — Step-father 
will not allow his step-son to eat at the 
same table with himself and children by 
second marriage, claiming he hates to 
see the son of another man eating his 
bread. The child is tossed some food 
and ordered to the kitchen. 

K. Southwestern District — Family of 
six found hungry — almost crazed by lack 
of food. Had lived five days on bread 
and water, and the last loaf of bread had 
been eaten for breakfast. 

L. Brainard District — Five children, 
half starved, found in a house unfit for 
habitation. Lack of food, shoes and 
clothing. Four of the children had no 
hats ; two of them were bare-footed, and 
none had tasted butter or meat for a 
week. 

M. Throop School District — One case 
where a mother tried to over-feed a 
baby less than a year old. Gave it a 
diet of dough-nuts dipped in coffee. 

N. Otis School District — One home 
where the father was a consumptive and 
the mother a drunkard ; three children. 

O. Ghetto District — Here, as elsewhere, 
were a large number of over-crowded, in- 
sanitary homes, lacking ventilation and 
cleanliness. Immediate need of the solu- 
tion of the housing problem. Good at- 
tendance at schools, through fear of pa- 
rents of being prosecuted. 

P. Kinzie School District — One philan- 
thropist contributed three quarts of milk 
every school day last winter, and it was 
distributed among children who came 
breakfastless to school. Humane teach- 
ers, here, as elsewhere, individually re- 
lieved many cases of hunger and paid for 
the same out of their salaries. 

Q. Mulligan School District — Several 
homes where children regularly had cold 



breakfasts and cold luncheons. Mothers 
away at work. An occasional warm meal 
with soup. 

R. Schneider School District — Two chil- 
dren found who cook their own meals 
most of the time. Mother demented. 

S. One South Side School — Boy, 12 years 
old, in first grade seventy-two weeks ; an 
under-fed child. 

T. Kosciuszko School District — Many 
homes found to be in an insanitary, un- 
clean condition. Food scarce. In the Wells 
District was found one case^typical — a 
hard-working woman who supports a lazy 
husband and keeps the children in school ; 
meals scant. 

U. — In two instances it was found that 
the families were so poor that their homes 
were dark several nights at a time be- 
cause there was no money to buy oil. 
There was lack of sufRcient food in both 
of these homes ; fathers out of work. 

V. Pulaski School District — Father dy- 
ing of consumption and mother sick with 
cancer in same room ; six children ; one- 
half loaf of rye bread and half a sausage 
was all that was left to eat. 

W. Stock Yards District — Bodily af- 
flicted and demented mother, covered 
with sores, who crawled around the house 
on all fours, and half clothed. Three 
children, poorly clad and poorly fed. 
Father had deserted. Supported, in a 
way, by relatives. 

X. — Several specific instances where 
wage-earning mothers' incomes did not 
exceed eighty cents a day, each. Children 
in each family not less than four ; scant 
meals. Principal dietary : bread, oat 
meal and tea or coffee. Housing condi- 
tions bad. Some of the children almost 
bare-footed until relieved at school. 

Y. First Ward — Five families residing 
in crudely partitioned apartments in on(i 
large store-room, vacated a few months 
prior by a merchant of hay and feed ; 
meals scant ; odor over-powering ; ventila- 
tion bad. A total of twenty-one children 
among the five families. 

Z. West Side District — In one of the 
West Side districts was found the mean- 
est man in Chicago, who had $600 in a 
savings bank, and locked in a chest deli- 
cacies for himself — denied to his wife and 
children, who were compelled to eat 
frugal meals. Boy out of school for lack 
of shoes. Father prosecuted and fined 
the limit. 

Where destitution was found the cases 
were reported by this department to va- 
rious charity organizations and relief ob- 
tained. Where home conditions showed 
lack of proper parental care, they were 
referred to the Juvenile Court. Where 
fathers were negligent drunkards, who 
were to blame for conditions and non- 
attendance of children at school, they 
were prosecuted. These prosecutions fre- 
quently brought fathers to a realization 
of their duty in sending their children 
to school regularly. 

The department has a policy of co- 
operation with charity organizations, and 
we iminediately report destitute cases 
found. 

OPINIONS OF INDIGENT PARENTS AND 
CHILDREN. 

Parents — particularly widowed or de- 
serted mothers — in impoverished homes, 



when asked for their views on the propo- 
sition of free breakfasts at school, with 
few exceptions, welcomed it as a helping 
hand. Some resented the idea. A few 
admitted that pride often prevented them 
from asking for assistance, and that even 
the children joined them in silent suffer- 
ing, temporarily, rather than let the 
neighbors know they were dependent upon 
the county or relief societies for rations. 
One mother said : "I do the best I can, 
but the children often go to school hungry, 
because the family is large and my em- 
ployment irregular and income small. It 
would be some consolation to know that 
the three children I am trying to keep 
in school had enough to eat at break- 
fast, because there are times when I have 
nothing to give them." 

Many fathers, out of work, were found 
to be regular beneficiaries of the free 
lunches served in saloons. They did not 
go hungry, but their wives and children 
often did. 

It is needless, perhaps, to report a 
unanimity of approval among many in- 
digent children for the free breakfast ser- 
vice. "We don't get enough to eat at 
home," is the substance of their request, 
"and we could get one good meal a day 
then." 

In response to a request for opinions 
on the subject, the managers of the fol- 
lowing public charity organizations re- 
ported as follows : 

Chicago Bureau of Charities — Mr. E. P. 
Bicknell, general superintendent of the 
Bureau of Charities, says : 

"The question is not whether there are 
under-fed school children in Chicago, 
That may be admitted. The actual ques- 
tion is how to correct the social condi- 
tions of which the under-feeding of chil- 
dren is one of the results. 

"These conditions cannot be charged 
-to extreme poverty alone, because whole- 
some, nourishing food is as inexpensive 
as any other kind, and because the most 
superficial acquaintance with the habits 
of life of a large part of the population 
shows that unwholesome food improperly 
prepared is absolutely common among 
families easily able to supply good and 
nourishing food. 

"When poverty is the cause, the remedy 
must go deeper than the provision of an 
occasional meal to the child of school 
age. What of the other children, espe- 
cially those below school age? Public or 
private charity has a duty here which 
cannot be met by school feeding. When 
poverty is not the cause, certainly the 
giving of meals to the children in the 
school is not the remedy. That would 
simply encourage the parents to unload 
their duties iipon the public, and would 
not teach or compel them to improve con- 
ditions at home. 

"It is absolutely necessary, in my opin- 
ion, to go back of the school and into 
the home. Anything short of that is 
playing with a serious condition, and 
tends to perpetuate rather than remove 
it. 

"The ultimate facts and the wisest 
way of dealing with them can only be 
ascertained by means of a thorough and 
extended investigation carried out along 
scientific lines. This subject, which is 



attracting constantly increasing popular 
interest, I believe, should be given the 
comprehensive investigation which its im- 
portance deserves. 

"The most effective method of going 
about this would seem to be to begin 
with a medical examination of the child 
in school, and when under-feeding was 
shown, to carry the inquiry into the home. 
If it were desired to begin with the home 
in which general conditions might seein 
to justify an expectation that under-feed- 
ing would prevail, charitable organizations 
could provide a list of such homes. 

"Should this course be adopted, the 
Chicago Bureau of Charities will gladly 
co-operate in any practicable way." 

Chicago Relief and Aid Society — Mr. 
S. C. Kingsley, superintendent of the 
society, says : 

"Accompanying this letter is a state- 
ment setting forth some of the circum- 
stances in sixty-six families under treat- 
ment by this society. They do not in any 
sense pretend to represent families from 
which children go to school hungry. They 
were not selected on that basis. They do 
represent, however, families where the 
income earned by the family is insufficient 
to maintain an adequate standard of 
living. They show, it seems to me, the 
necessity of more extensive treatment 
than the school meal to one or more of 
the children of school age. 

"You will notice that there are in the 
sixty-six families 228 children of school 
age, and 164 below school age, and seventy- 
three children at work. ' Of course, the 
same conditions of the family are opera- 
tive on the children below school age. 
Then there are conditions of intemper- 
ance, desertion, incompetency and neglect 
which would in no way be affected, but 
might be promoted by taking away from 
the responsibility of the home. It seems 
to me to indicate a need of treatment of 
home conditions. 

"This is a profoundly important ques- 
tion and seems to me to need a broad 
and thorough investigation. In this we 
shall be glad to co-operate in any way we 
can." 

The SwedisJu National Association^ 
through its secretary, Othelia Myhrman, 
gives as its opinion as follows : 

"After making careful inquiries among 
a number of Swedish people and charity 
workers as to whether these are under-fed 
school children in Chicago among our na- 
tionality, I wish to state that imder nor- 
mal conditions 90 per cent of our peo- 
ple are able to care for their children 
and do so. The only class who might 
need assistance are poor widows, left 
with a number of children to support. In 
these cases, which represent a very small 
percentage, a school breakfast might be 
a relief to the mother who is out work- 
ing all day, but what of the children left 
at home, who, in most cases, represent 
more than those who attend school? In 
cases of deserted wives, we think it would 
be relieving the husband of his respon- 
sibility, and in our opinion it would 
be a far better remedy if a law could be 
enacted that would compel the husband 
to return and do his duty by his family. 
We do not believe that a school break- 
fast in the largest number of cases would 
be of any great benefit." 



The Salvation Army — Brigadier Still- 
well, of the Relief Department of the 
Salvation Army, says : 

"I have before me letters from Ave 
districts, and all say there are a few, 
but I do not believe there are many. I 
enclose letter from one of the poorest 
districts, which speaks for itself." 

The letter is as follows, and is signed 
by Ensign S. Johnson : 

"In answer to your postal inquiring 
about the number of children going to 
school without any breakfast. During 
the winter months, in our visitation among 
the poor, we have found Several children 
who have gone to school without any 
breakfast, or only had a piece of bread, 
and not much more for lunch, and about 
the same for their supper. 

"The cause — husband out of work, sick- 
ness, drunkenness, or where the wife has 
been deserted by husband, and sometimes 
it is through laziness." 

The Cook County Agent, Mr. Victor 
Young, says : 

"That there are children in Chicago 
going to school on a very scanty break- 
fast because, many tim^s, there is next 
to nothing in their homes to eat, I be- 
lieve to be an absolute certainty ; that 
this dire condition has prevailed for a 
great number of years and exists to- 
day is undoubtedly true. I believe this 
to be well known to all the leading char- 
ities in Chicago ; and that, so far, no 
efforts have been put forth to relieve the 
situation, is perhaps not so strange when 
one becomes familiar with the past his- 
tory of charities in this cit^; that we 
are on the eve of solving this problem, 
of taking upon ourselves these duties, so 
long ignored, is a good sign of the time. 
But if we are going to do this thing, let 
us begin from the source and build up 
from the bottom, instead of. skimming 
the surface, and let us stop playing to the 
galleries — there, has been already too 
much of that. To my mind, no real good 
can be accomplished by furnishing break- 
fasts to such school children as may be 
hungry, by the Board of Education. If 
we admit that there are hungry children 
going to school, surely we must admit 
that there are hungry families from 
whence these children come. 

"The County Agent furnished relief, 
during last year, to 2,819 widows' fami- 
lies, with nearly an average of three chil- 
dren per familJ^ and 880 deserted women, 
with an average of three children per 
family. Nine-tenths of these families 
have no friends or relatives in a position 
to render them any financial assistance, 
and with the earnings of the mother of 
from three to five dollars per week (by 
going out scrubbing and washing to sup- 
port herself and children), and what as- 
sistance rendered them by this office, how 
can it be otherwise than that many of 
these families go hungry to bed and many 
of the children go hungry to school. Be- 
sides, what woman can bear this physical 
strain without breaking down in the 
course of a couple of years, and thus the 
earning capacity becomes less and less 
until she is entirely down and out ; then 
what happens? The family is broken 
up ; the children find their way to the 
Juvenile Court. Some get into institu- 

8 



tions, and others become criminals and 
are sent to the penitentiary. 

"To my mind the proper solution of this 
question is to furnish adequate assistance 
to the families ; help the mother, in order 
that she may have some little time to 
take care of her children, and to do this 
there must necessarily be assured funds. 
And since no charity organization society 
in Chicago is capable of meeting this need, 
it is the duty of the state — of Cook 
county — to relieve the situation. Make 
your appeal to the proper authorities — 
show that there is a need, and that, al- 
though the same has been neglected in 
the past, there is now no good reason 
why we should not begin to realize our 
duties. 

"The Charity Organization Societies 
are doing all they possibly can with such 
funds as thej^ have available, and their 
work is highly appreciated bj^ the writer, 
but their burdens are too heavy, and as 
ample funds are necessary to relieve any 
kind of a situation, it necessarily follows 
that the state should assume this re- 
sponsibility." 

Visitation and Aid Society — T. D. Hur- 
ley, president of the society, believes that 
the furnishing of free breakfasts by the 
Board of Education will do lasting harm 
to parents and children by making them 
dependent. He thinks intemperance and 
indifference are the causes in most cases 
where children are sent to school hungry ; 
more often than poverty, illness or lack 
of employment. Mr. Hurley says : "That 
the most effective results are obtained 
by the policy of the Compulsory Educa- 
tion Department, which, through friendly 
admonition, warning — and when that fails, 
prosecution — compels a parent to fulfil 
his duty toward his children." Mr. Hur- 
ley suggests that the same course be fol- 
lowed, when necessary, in regard to the 
feeding and caring for children. The 
correction should be made in the home, 
for if a child goes to school hungry, it is 
apt to go to bed hungry, which is equallj^ 
bad. 

The following is the report of Josephine 
Roughton, Truant Officer, detailed to visit 
the various social settlements and char- 
ity organizations, presenting the opinion 
of experts, and of men and women promi- 
nent in relief work : 

"Following is the result of an investi- 
gation made, upon your request, concern- 
ing the need of a free breakfast for school 
children. The investigation was made 
among the charity organizations, na- 
tional societies and social settlements of 
the city. 

"To this end we visited nine charity 
organizations, four national societies and 
twelve social settlements, the names of 
which follow : 

'■Charities — Relief and Aid Society, Bu- 
reau of Charities, Visitation and Aid So- 
ciety, Home and Aid, County Agent, 
A^isiting Nurses' Association, Bureau of 
Personal Service, Tuberculosis Institute 
and Salvation Army (Relief Department). 

"National Societies — Jewish Aid. Swed- 
ish National Association, Hungarian So- 
cietj^ and German Society. 

''Settlements — Hull House, Gads Hill, 
March Home, Henry Booth H., Eli Bates 
House, Association H., N. W. University, 



Chicago Commons, Neighborhood H. and 
Jewish Manual Training. 

"None of the settlement workers wei-e 
able to give us any facts, but all gladly 
gave us their opinions, as follows: 

"Hull House — Mrs. Britton does not 
think a positive statement could be made 
as to how many children go hungry to 
school, until a house-to-house investiga- 
tion is made. She suggests following up 
the work of the medical examiner, by 
going into the homes of those children 
who are reported as being under-fed and 
endeavor to learn the cause in each family. 
She thinks that as many children go 
hungry because of carelessness and im- 
proper feeding as from lack of food, and 
is of the opinion that free breakfasts 
should be given. 

"Henry Booth House — Mr. Allenson 
does not favor the free breakfast idea : 
he does not think it will solve the prob- 
lem of under-fed children. 

"Jewish Manual Training School — Mr. 
Bache says that 30 per cent of the chil- 
dren from that school are under-fed. He 
told us of one boy who he was certain 
had come to school half the winter with- 
out any breakfast, and often had no noon- 
day lunch. He knew this boy was hungrs". 
He also told of a family where the father 
was dead ; six children, oldest 7 years ; 
one child works, earning $4 per week; 
mother scrubs. They receive some little 
help from the Jewish Aid Society — about 
$4 a week. The children of school age 
are given their breakfasts in the Helen 
Nursery, nearby, and show a marked im- 
provement. 

"Association House — Miss Wilson, hea-d 
assistant, is awaj'. Miss Ellis, who is in 
charge, could give no facts. Thought there 
might be a very few families in the neigh- 
borhood where the children go hungry to 
school, but does not think free break- 
fasts will do any lastinof good; thinks it 
will be a pauperizing influence." 

"March Home — Miss Hall thinks there 
are families where the children are ill- 
fed, but thinks it is more the result of 
indifference and carelessness and in- 
temperance than real poverty-. Thinks a 
few breakfasts will only relie^'e the par- 
ents of the responsibility of providing for 
their families. 

"Gads Hill — Mrs. Leila Martin does not 
know of any children who would be really 
benefitted by the free breakfasts. She 
thinks it would only increase depend- 
ency. 

"Christopher House — Miss Griffiths does 
not approve of the plan. She thinks there 
may be many who are hungry or under- 
fed through ignorance, intemperance and 
carelessness on the parents' parts. 

"Neighborhood House — Mrs. Van der 
Vaart does not think any children in this 
neighborhood need a free meal. If any 
be given, thinks a noon-day meal better 
than breakfast, but thinks the plan a 
poor one, as it would increase depend- 
ency. 

"As to the charity and national so- 
cieties, I am in receipt of letters from 
the following, which speak for them- 
selves : 

"Mr. S. C. Kingsley. Chicago Relief and 
Aid Society: Mr. E. P. Bicknell, Chicago 
Bureau of Charities ; Mrs. Brigadier Still- 



well, Relief Department, Salvation Army ; 
Mr. Victor Young, Assistant County 
Agent ; Mrs. Myrhman, Swedish National 
Alliance. 

"Also a report by districts from the 
Visiting Nurses' Association. Miss Fulmer, 
superintendent of nurses, does not approve 
of free breakfasts. Does not think it the 
best way to proceed in solving the prob- 
lem. Bad housing is responsible, in 
many cases, for the illness and back- 
wardness of children, as much as under- 
feeding. She cited the experiment made 
some years ago at the Jones School, at 
the suggestion of Mr. Robert Hunter. 
Children did not want breakfasts, and 
in many cases refused to be fed, saying 
they had all they wanted to eat at home. 
Miss Fulmer thinks a thorough investiga- 
tion is necessary before anything is done. 
This investigation to be conducted by per- 
sons competent to judge. 

'•Tuberculosis Institute — Mr. Alex. Wil- 
son asked the nurses of that organization 
for a report, by districts. There were 
eleven families comprising about thirty 
children. The causes given for the under- 
fed condition of the children were in- 
temperance, illness and lack of employ- 
ment. Mr. Wilson does not think a free 
breakfast would meet the conditions. He 
thinks it would be a superficial way of 
treating a big, serious problem. He thinks 
that if the school children are hungry, so 
are those at home under school age, and 
the parents as well. All of which should 
be remedied. 

'•Home and Aid Society — Mr. Whalen 
thinks most children are hungry all the 
time. Thinks breakfasts should be given 
in the schools even though the causes of 
the hunger are intemperance, careless- 
ness, etc., and the hungry child should 
be fed. Thinks it should be done even 
though the parents take advantage of it 
and impose upon the privilege. 

"German Society — Mr. Spaeth believes 
a free breakfast is needed. The society 
cares for from 125 to 200 families. 

"Jewish Aid Society — Miss Kalisky 
thinks free breakfasts unnecessary, and in 
many cases harmful in its results on the 
parents. She knows families where the 
mother will not' cook breakfast or lunch, 
because it can be had at the Goldsmith 
School free of charge. Many mothers 
are too lazy to cook, and prefer to give 
their children a couple of pennies with 
which to buy a lunch without coming 
home at noon. Of course, the pennies 
are not invested in nourishing food, but 
in whatever pleases the cJiild's fancy. 
Miss Kalisky thinks if any of the Jewish 
children go to school hungry, it is un- 
necessary, and the parents should be 
dealt with and compelled to do their duty, 
instead of being made even more depend- 
ent than they already are. 

"Miss Edith Atkinson, Special Census 
Enumerator, detailed on the subject, re- 
ports to me as follows : 

" 'You asked me to give you my opinion, 
after investigating the subject of break- 
fasts in the schools. It seems to be a 
great and complex question with much 
division of opinion as to the method of 
relief. As you will see by the report, 
there are only about three or four of 
the charitable societies in favor of it. The 



settlement houses seem to be more in 
favor of it. I do not see why the charity 
societies are not in favor of it, only that 
they may think it will interfere with their 
work. In my investigation of feeble- 
minded children, I cannot help but be- 
lieve that it would be a good thing. For 
example : The poor widows who have to 
go to work early in the morning, and 
have no time to get breakfast, and do not 
come home until after six in the evening, 
and their children go hungry all day. An- 
other thing I can't understand is how 
these charity societies are going to reach 
all the people in the homes, as they seem 
to think they can. I am in favor of these 
breakfasts in the schools. The Goldsmith 
School, where private philanthropy has 
financed the relief, has made a success of 
it.' " 

Henry W. Thurston, Chief' Probation 
Officer of the Juvenile Court, does not ap- 
prove of giving free breakfast in school. 

Judge R. S. Tuthill does not endorse 
the plan. Thinks the effect on the parent 
would be harmful. He also thinks that 
relief should be given in the home. 

Miss Vittum, of the Northwestern Uni- 
versity Settlement, thinks the need is not 
wide spread, but if there were only 500 
children who need the breakfast, they 
should be given it, but in their homes, if 
possible. 

Mrs. Raymond Robins thinks the neces- 
sity exists. She thinks that breakfast 
should be given or sold for a small sum 
to every child, to avoid having some 
children known as "breakfast scholars." 
She believes the condition is due largely 
to the fact that so many mothers work 
and come home too tired to cook supper, 
and are still too tired in the morning to 
cook breakfast. 

Miss Jane Addams, of Hull House, feels 
that the Question is as yet premature. She 
has no facts at hand that would warrant 
her saying that there is need for a free 
breakfast. She thinks it would be better 
to have the families that need help looked 
after by the relief societies. 

Miss Mary McDowell, of the University 
Settlement, thinks it would be decidedly 
wrong to feed children in school or cen- 
ter set apart for that purpose, thereby 
"tagging" them as poor. She thinks that 
some parents would be indignant if their 
children were fed in school, and while 
there is great need for more and better 
food, every child should eat breakfast at 
its own table, if possible. She thinks re- 
lief should be given the entire family, 
and not one or two members of it. Miss 
McDowell says that in New York and 
London some of the social workers are 
disappointed in the results of the free 
breakfasts given in those cities. 

All of these experts agree, however, 
that there are hungry children in Chi- 
cago, and that they should be fed, but 
some think it would be better to feed 
them at home and not at school. 

Mrs. Marshall A. Roe, president of the 
Children's Day Association, favors a co- 
operative plan for free breakfasts at 
schools for under-fed children who need 
it badly. She states that the Children's 
Day Association might undertake financ- 
ing a few experimental centers if the 
Board of Education will give the use of 



10 



the rooms, and if the funds of the as- 
sociation are sufficiently maintained by 
public Interest. 

THE SYSTEM IN NEW YORK. 

New York is confronted by the same 
conditions of poverty that confront Chi- 
cago. Advices under date of June 3, 
1908, are as follows: 

"Emergrency measures for the relief of 
hundreds of pupils in East Side schools 
who have been found to be suffering from 
lack of food, have been adopted by the 
Committee of East Side School Board 
members, organized as a result of the 
serious conditions which the reports of 
school principals in the section revealed. 
The Committee decided to arrange for the 
speedy opening of two kitchens on the 
lower East Side, at which the hungry 
children may be fed. While the funds 
for the support of these kitchens have 
been supplied only in part, the public 
has been so stirred by the disclosures of 
the pitiable plight of children fainting 
at their desks from want of sufficient 
nourishment, that the Committee antici- 
pates no trouble in obtaining, by sub- 
sci'iption, all the money needed for the 
purpose. 

"That the reports already made public 
have hardly painted the condition black 
enough, was the statement made by Isi- 
dore M. Levy, chairman of the Third 
School District Committee. 'An investiga- 
tion,' reports Mr. Levy, 'has shown that 
many of the destitute families have sent 
their little ones to school without having 
given them food for forty-eight hours. To 
my own personal knowledge several chil- 
dren have fainted while they were re- 
citing in their class-rooms.' 

"Destitution has visited hundreds of 
East Side families at the result of the 
business depression. Not only have the 
educational authorities taken up the mat- 
ter, but various charitable societies have 
begun active work for alleviating the dis- 
tress. Among these are the Association 
for Improving the Condition of the Poor 
and the United Hebrew Charities. 

"The teachers' and principals' organiza- 
tion, perfected, is to be called the 'Chil- 
dren's Relief Society,' and the hungry 
children in many of the lower East Side 
schools received tickets entitling them to 
a substantial luncheon consisting of soup, 
an egg, plenty of rolls and butter, crack- 
ers and sterilized milk." 

RELIEF WORK AT THE GOLDSMITH SCHOOL. 

The following is a report from Principal 
C. J. Lunak on the system of feeding in- 
digent children at the Oliver Goldsmith 
public school, Maxwell and Union streets : 

"In 1902 the Jochanna Lodge, under 
the leadership of its most excellent and 
able president, Mrs. Hannah Newman, re- 
ceived permission from the Board of Edu- 
cation to serve lunches to those children 
who came to school without breakfasts, 
and to those whose mothers are employed 
and so cannot supply the children with 
proper nourishing food at noon. A room 
was prepared for this purpose in the base- 
ment, and the work was directed by Mrs. 
Newman, who was ably assisted by Mrs. 
Emil Hirsch. After some consultation, it 
was decided that the lunches consist of 
oatmeal mush, bread and milk, and for 



this each child be required to pay one 
cent, unless it was found that even that 
svim could not be paid. 

"The neighborhood was canvassed, and 
upon recommendation of the teachers and 
principal, seventy children were sent to 
the lunch-room for their breakfasts and 
noon lunches. These children were ob- 
served, and many of them gained in health 
and a decided improvement in their school 
work was noticed. Several of them, who 
were backward and required two years 
to do the work of one grade, were pro- 
moted in eight months, and most of them 
required the usual one year's time to 
complete the work of a grade. 

"Specific Cases — Mother abandoned by 
husband. One of four poorly nourished 
children all suffering from malnutrition. 
It took Eddie two years to do the work 
of the first grade. He was examined by 
the school physician, and found to be 
anaemic and showing haemoglobin to be 
60 per cent. He was sent to the lunch- 
room three times daily and given two 
glasses of milk with oatmeal and bread. 
A subsequent examination showed a great 
improvement, the haemoglobin percentage 
having risen to 85 per cent. Eddie is 
now in third grade, having completed 
the work of the second grade in eight 
months, and his teacher says he is one of 
the brightest children in the third grade. 
There is no doubt that the lack of food 
kept this boy back. 

"Jennie and Becky W. Father in the 
Bridewell ; mother ill. These are two 
bright little girls who are now two years 
in the first grade, and who will be pro- 
moted to the second grade in June. These 
children were given a piece of stale bread 
for breakfast and wretched coffee and 
bread for the noon meal, with soup and 
bread for supper. Their condition was 
unknown to us, but their teacher reported 
the case and Mrs. Newman investigated. 
The children were sent to the lunch-room 
for their breakfasts and noon lunches, and 
in less than a year's time, from weak, 
pale, backward little girls, they are now 
well-nourished, rosy and among the 
brightest in their class. The cost, per 
month, is about $40, made up of: At- 
tendant (at $3 a week), $12; bread (100 
loaves at 6c), $6; milk (14 quarts daily 
at 7c), $20; oatmeal, $1; sugar, $1. 

"This entire expense is met by the ladies 
of the Jochanna Lodge. From seventy to 
eighty children are fed daily, thus making 
the cost about three cents per lunch. 
Perhaps a little variety in the food might 
be made, but it is difficult to conceive of 
a more simple and nutritious lunch than 
is offered here. 

"The serving of lunches at this school 
has passed the experimental stage, and 
we are satisfied, from the results ac- 
complished, that the cause for the back- 
wardness of many children is malnutri- 
tion, and that this backwardness is best 
treated not psychologically, but physically, 
with the proper and sufficient nourish- 
ment." 

RELIEF WORK AT THE DORE SCHOOL. 

Mr. F. J. "Watson, Principal of the Dore 
School, reports the system successfully iii 
effect at that school. 



11 



He says : "You ask me for an account 
of the free luncheon given to Indigent 
and sub-normal pupils at the Dore School. 
These luncheons have been served every- 
day since the beginning of the month of 
May. The food is furnished by the Chil- 
dren's Relief and Aid Society through 
the Crane Day Nursery. A pupil goes 
after it at 11 :30 and carries back the 
dishes at the close of the afternoon ses- 
sion. The luncheon consists generally of 
either sandwiches and cocoa, meat stew 
and bread, soup and bread, or rice and 
bread. We have a gas plate in an adjoin- 
ing room, but have not as yet found it 
necessary to use it as the soup and cocoa 
are sent over hot. Spoons, bowls and cups 
have been donated by some kind friends 
of the school. 

"Miss Brockett, of the Crane Day Nur- 
sery, has been very helpful in the matter. 
During the spring vacation she visited 
the homes of pupils recommended by the 
teachers, as likely to benefit by a lunch- 
eon being furnished, and made the ac- 
quaintance of the parents. In this^ way 
obstacles, due to racial and religious pre- 
judice, were removed. 

"As to results, it is too early in the ex- 
periment to judge them fully. Both teach- 
ers of subnormal classes, however, report 
an improved physical condition and 
greater alertness of mind and more en- 
durance of mental effort than before. 
They do not tire so quickly. Miss Keller, 
who has charge of those requiring only 
a little 'coaching' to fit them for regular 
work, reports a general improvement in 
effort and power of attention, less fatigue 
and better deportment. 

":Miss Wendell, who has the less hope- 
ful pupils, reports an improvement in de- 
portment, and mental improvement in 
some, but not in all. Some pupils re- 
member and comprehend much better than 
they did before, are less inattentive and 
have more power of sticking to their 
work. 

"Should the experiment be continued, I 
hope by Christmas time to have better 
results to report." 

COST OF MAINTENANCE. 

The cost (including labor) of giving 
free breakfasts to 5,000 children for 200 
school days would be about $30,000 per 
year. This is estimated on the average 
cost of maintenance of the service at the 
Oliver Goldsmith, where seventy pupils 
are supplied at an expenditure of $400 per 
year, or a per capita cost of three cents 
per meal each on school days. This is 
the minimum. The 5,000 indigent pupils 
of Chicago are scattered throughout the 
city, and it would be inexpedient to at- 
tempt to centralize them at any one or 
two schools in each division of the city. 
If your Cominittee decides to undertake 
the stupendous, but humane, task of re- 
lief at the expense of the Board of Edu- 
cation, or whether the plan is financed by 
private subscription or an endowment by 
some philanthropist, I believe it would be 
best to first have experimental centers 
established at schools in those districts 
where they are most needed, similar to 
that now in effect for manual training 
centers. This might give an opportunity 
to needy pupils from adjacent schools to 



be relieved, provided the breakfasts are 
served at an hour early enough to avoid 
tardiness or interruption of classes. 

If it would be found illegal to expend 
funds for other than educational purposes, 
legislative enactment would be necessary. 
Private philanthropy might be induced to 
provide the food and labor if the Board 
of Education would permit the use of a 
room, or basement, at the schools selected. 

Poverty will always exist in a metrop- 
olis like Chicago. We cannot change hu- 
man nature or the destiny of destitu- 
tion which fate often decrees, but the fact 
remains that corrective and charitable in- 
stitutions are being daily filled with de- 
linquent and dependent children who come 
in most cases from the ranks of the under- 
fed, and the question of the cost of pre- 
vention may be considered one of eventual- 
economy when compared with the cost of 
the cure. 

In considering the estimates, carefully 
based on reports from people in active 
touch with conditions, it should be re- 
membered that in the examination of 
10,090 children at only twelve public 
schools, Dr. D. P. McMillan and his as- 
sistants, who constitute a recognized au- 
thority on child study and scientific 
pedagogy, found 1,123 children of the 
5,000 mentioned in the Introductory of this 
report. It was impossible for Dr McMil- 
lan to examine all of the children at all 
the schools. If 1,123 cases were found 
in only twelve schools, what would have 
been the result if he had extended the 
examinations to all the schools of Chi- 
cago — public and private — 432 in number 
— with a total enrollment of 390,000? 

The truant officers know the poverty 
conditions in their respective districts. 
They cover all the schools of Chicago — 
public and private. They consulted teach- 
ers in class rooms, and principals. They 
had the knowledge of conditions in the 
homes of 3,413 individual truants; 1,646 
homes in cases where warning notices 
were served on parents; 949 homes where 
the sanitary conditions and environments 
were not good ; and several thousand 
other homes of temporary absentees, in 
routine work during the school year. 
Moreover, there was available for infor- 
mation a previous report on 800 children 
filed by Miss Britton, of Hull House, and 
representatives of the Visiting Nurses' 
Association and Compulsory Educa'tion 
Department, who conducted a co-opera- 
tive intensive study of the causes of 
truancy. I have faith in the reports from 
truant oflHcers in every district, and the 
specific cases of destitution mentioned in 
this report are only a few that have been 
actually seen. 

It was deemed inadvisable to poll class 
rooms in the presence of pupils. Any 
child with the sensitive spirit of poverty 
would hesitate about admitting publicly in 
the presence of other pupils, that he or 
she came to school hungry. Privately, 
the admission could be obtained in many 
cases. There was also a reluctance on 
the part of a few principals to furnish 
complete lists of underfed pupils, doubtless 
because they disliked any possible pub- 
licity of linking the name of the school 
to the word "charity" — the coldest word 
in the dictionary. However, in such in- 



12 



stances, estimates were furnished, and 
the truant officer knew of indigence from 
previous visitation in some of the homes 
in those districts. 

Representatives of this department 
checked up the records in the County 
Agent's office. Here was found concrete 
evidence that 11.097 children were wards 
of a limited service of charity during the 
year, and that over 10,000 pairs of shoes 
had been supplied to children. In addi- 
tion to this, private philanthropy and 
other charity organizations relieved 6,000 
other children. 

In the distribution of county rations 
among the 11,097 children aforesaid, not 
one drop of milk and not one pound of 
butter was given. I believe that the nu- 
tritional value of milk is essential to 
children — particularly the younger ones. 

The system of distribution of rations 
necessitates economy on account of the 
heavy demand and limited appropriation. 
This was admitted at the Countj' Agent's; 
office. The monthly single ration schedule 
is applied to families having three chil- 
dren or less. 

The monthly double ration schedule to 
families having more than three children 
(whether it be five or eight children) 
consists of : 

Two bars of soap. 

Six pounds of rice. 

Five pounds of beans. 

Five pounds of rolled oats. 

Two pounds of coffee. 

One pound of tea. 

Two bags of flour. 

Five pounds of corn meal. 

No milk. 

No butter. 

No potatoes. 

No sugar. 

No lard. 

If the famllj^ was large and the rations 
limited, without essentials that childhood 
likes, was it not inevitable that even these 
wards of the county's generosity often 
went to school with a scant meal? 

The annual report of this department 
filed with the Board of Education in 1906, 
showed that 56.69 per cent of the truants 
sent to the Parental School the preceding 
5-ear, lacked proper nutritional food and 
care In the homes from which they came. 

The records of this department, and the 
records of the Parental School and re- 
ports of Child Studj' Department cover- 
ing over 1.400 cases of truants sent to 
the Parental School in the past, show that 
the majority of truants sent there had 
been backward in their grades in the 
schools frona which they came. Thej- also 
disclose the fact that the greater per- 
centage were underfed, victims of envi- 
ronment, and not normal. 

Investigation into the grade classifica- 
tion of 3.413 individual truants from the 
various schools of Chicago, public and 
private, for the past school 3-ear of 1907-8, 
ending in June. 1908, and with an aver- 
age age of eleven, twelve and thirteen, 
revealed the following low-grade classifi- 
cation for boj-s of that age : 

Grade. Truants. 

First 291 

Second 493 

Third 689 

Fourth 654 



Fifth 623 

Sixth 354 

Seventh 150 

Eighth 49 

Ungraded 110 

The Health Department Inspectors re- 
port in the examination of 9,000 children 
that they found 108 cases of malnutri- 
tion. A child can go hungry for some 
time, according to the admission of phy- 
sicians, before it reaches that state that 
a medical inspector could classify as 
acute malnutrition. 

In the Investigation, the following re- 
port was obtained from Miss Azile B. 
Reynolds, who had charge of the old 
Hoyne School during the work of the 
Milk Commission of the Children's Hos- 
pital : 

"During the year 1903-4, the Kinzle 
School was temporarily located in the 
Hoyne School Building, while the Kinzle 
was under repair. The milk sold to the 
children by the Milk Commission was 
sterilized and sold in bottles containing 
from one-fourth to one-half pint ; the 
price was 1 and 2 cents a bottle, accord- 
ing to size. At that tline their wagons 
delivered milk to several schools in the 
cit3'. The children of our school' bought 
dally about one hundred fifty (150) 
bottles. Many of our children are given 
each day five cents (5c) with which to 
purchase lunch, their 'parents being away 
from home at noon at work and the home 
locked. At the present time this money 
Is spent for Ice-cream cones, apple taffy 
or candy. At the Hoyne it was spent for 
milk because the milk was to be bought 
in small quantities." 

In the presentation of this report. It Is 
not a random guess. I have presented 
the conditions as thej' exist to the best 
knowledge and belief of truant officers, 
teachers, principals, charity workers, and 
those who are in active touch with the 
school, the home, the parent and the 
child. I believe — in spite of the large 
number named — that it is a very conser- 
vative composite estimate, based on the 
location and investigation of a sufficient 
number of cases to warrant that esti- 
mate. If the records of the County 
Agent's office and other relief societies 
and the Child Study Department are not 
sufficient to verifj' it, if it be deemed nec- 
essary, I believe that a house-to-house 
canvass or special census will do so. This 
Department will do its share at any time. 
It is a problem of social conditions that 
involve even a greater research than food. 
There Is a field, with more time at our 
disposal, to prepare more complete so- 
ciological statistics on the housing prob- 
lem, etc., if the Board of Education cares 
to extend its research into home condi- 
tions. But I respectfully call j^our at- 
tention to the fact that many parents will 
resent too rigid an inquiry into their 
private affairs. 

1 have not submitted any statistics on 
nationality, genealogj', or incidentals of 
home life, but have confined the investi- 
gation of home conditions to the intent 
of the resolution offered by Mr. Spiegel. 

If your Committee shall decide to fur- 
nish rooms and equipment to encourage 
any private endowment or society that 
would undertake to establish experimen- 



13 



tal centers in districts where they are 
most needed, I trust a system will be in 
effect to safeguard against the following : 

1. The possibility of some parents to 
impose on the generous impulse of phi- 
lanthropy, by shirking responsibility for 
their cliildren's needs. Some parents 
might reason that if free breakfasts go 
with a free education, it should perpetually 
include free shoes and free clothing. 

2. Sensitive parents of another class, 
might object to having their children re- 
garded by other children at school as 
dependents who do not get enough to eat 
at home. 

A question that has been raised and 
also to be considered is, where does the 
responsibility of the Board of Education 
end? If the mind of the indigent is given 
free text books, should the physical and 
mental condition of the abnormal or 
needy child be bettered to attain the nor- 
mal interest of the pupil in the course of 
study, in order to complete the educational 
training? If the dietary of three full 
meals at the Parental School cures tru- 
ants who were invariably backward in 
their grades at the regular schools, would 
the dietary of a morning meal at the reg- 
ular school and two inadequate meals at 
home, produce the same correctional and 
promotional result in backwardness in 
grade before the child became delinquent? 

The investigations show a preference 
among many sociological and charity 
workers to have the children fed at home. 
They also admit that the Board of Edu- 
cation has no jurisdiction, no legal right 
to supply provisions in homes. Several 
points emphasized by a number who 
favor the free breakfast plan at schools, 
are as follows : 

1. If our charitable organizations can 
successfully cope with conditions in the 
home, why are there so many underfed 
children in Chicago — a fact established 
beyond a doubt by scientific examinations 
and admitted by all as true. 

2. Is it due to lack of appreciation 
and adequate public support of some of 
our local charities ; or is it due to false 
pride, or reluctance on the part of some 
parents to ask for charity? 

3. Could the appetites of school chil- 
dren in an impoverished family, or one 
accepting relief, always be appeased by 
limited rations from charitable organiza- 
tions in the home in instances where a 
selfish father or adult, either by parental 
intimidation or force, confiscated more 
than his or her share of the food and de- 
prived children of their full share? In 
sucih instances, would not a meal at 
school for the child be an assurance that 
the child at least would have one full 
morning meal. 

4. If relief at school would create a 
spirit of dependency, does not relief at 
home do the same? 

5. Does not the precedent remain that 
the co-operative plan at the Oliver Gold- 
smith School, between the Board of Edu- 
cation and Jochanna Lodge, has long 
been a success, and no protest has ever 
been received from parent, pupil, edu- 
cator or sociologist? 

I respectfully submit all this informa- 
tion, and all these various opinions, to 



your Committee, and trust this report will 
assist in the solution of a great and com- 
plex problem. 

Respectfully, 

W. L. BODINE^ 

Supt. of Compulsory Education. 

REPORT OP D. p. MAC MILLAN, DIRECTOR OF 

DEPARTMENT OP CHILD STUDY AND 

PEDAGOGIC INVESTIGATION. 

To the Committee on School Management. 
Ladies and Gentlemen : 

Complying with the request contained in 
your resolution received May 18, 1908, 
concerning the problem of feeding needy 
and ill-nourished pupils in the public 
schools of Chicago, I beg to submit the 
following data and considerations : 

Any report on the subject of underfed 
children attending the public schools of 
Chicago, made in such a brief period of 
time, must of necessity be lacking in de- 
tail as well as in breadth or scope. The 
fact that many comparatively small mu- 
nicipalities who undertook somewhat sim- 
ilar investigations, were compelled to de- 
vote one or two years, and sometimes 
even more time, to the collection of ade- 
quate data, will serve to indicate the 
work before a small committee whicli en- 
deavors to find out in four weeks the 
status and conditions relative to the ill- 
nourished or underfed children in Chi- 
cago. 

As presented by your Committee, the 
problem relates particularly to an in- 
vestigation of the impoverished conditions 
of the public school pupils "due to want, 
to lack of nourishment, and the absence 
of proper care ;" to suggest the best rem- 
edies to remove or relieve such condi- 
ions ; to determine what other large pub- 
lic school centers are doing, and what 
legal restrictions and powers relative to 
this subject-matter confronts the Board 
Of Education. 

Of course, it is perfectly obvious that 
our topic is elusive and one that is sus- 
ceptible of many misrepresentations. Mal- 
nutrition must be distinguished from the 
conditions induced by lack of sufficient 
food or poor food. Many a child gets 
enough to eat and yet that dietary may 
be poorly balanced and poorly cooked. 
Just how much is due to poor dietary or 
to insufficient feeding cannot be estimated 
even with the exact conditions before one. 
Again, many defects of development of 
children, that is, physical defects of 
growth and movement, may be due to lack 
of proper early care ; and yet though pres- 
ent conditions of home and environment 
are normalized, these defects have not 
entirely been eliminated, but persist in 
one form or another. From this point of 
view, it may therefore be a proper and 
legitimate question to ask whether every 
child showing physical defects should on 
that account be regarded as ill-nourished, 
in the strict and scientific significance of 
the term. No such general implication, 
however, is contemplated by the terms 
"malnutrition" and "ill-nourishment" in 
the investigation requested by the Com- 
mittee on School Management, but refer- 
ence is made rather to the common and 
popular notion implied in the term "mal- 
nutrition," that is to such conditions as 
prevail among poor and necessitous chil- 



14 



dren, and by "necessitous children" is 
meant, those children whose parents are 
really too poor to provide nutritious food 
in sufficient quantities to contribute to 
healthful growth and. such activity of 
iTiind and body as are called for in the 
ordinary routine of school life. 

In keeping with the first portion of the 
request — that referring to the impover- 
ished condition of the cliildren in the pub- 
lic schools of Chicago — a careful canvass 
was made, as far as time permitted, of 
some representative schools situated in 
those districts of the city where poverty 
prevails. From a preliminary survey it 
seemed safe to assume that in the poorer 
sections of the city there are situated 54 
schools with a total enrollment of 59,820 
pupils, or somewhat more than one-fourth 
the number of pupils in the elementary 
schools. The time at our disposal did 
not permit a study of the conditions that 
obtain in all these 54 schools and it was 
necessary to make a selection of as many 
representative schools as was possible to 
visit. We selected twelve schools for in- 
vestigation, in w^hich conditions, as far 
as it is possible to know, are fairly typi- 
cal of the whole, and in these twelve 
10,090 children were examined, a number 
approximately one-sixth of the school 
population in the poorer districts. The 
schools visited were the Goldsmith, Wash- 
burne, Smyth, Foster, Dante (including 
Branch I), Jones, Jackson, Jenner, Schil- 
ler, Walsh and the Harrison. 

Of course to secure adequate and sat- 
isfactory data concerning the actual con- 
ditions of poverty among the children, it 
would have been advisable first to deter- 
mine the number of children in the schools 
who are actually afflicted with one form 
or another of malnutrition, as well as 
those who fatigue easily in their school 
work and, secondly, to visit the homes of 
these children in order to find out the 
exact number who are really suffering 
from want of food, that is, are necessi- 
tous. But here again the magnitude of 

School. Kindergarten. Grade I. Gr 



the task was far too great for the facili- 
ties and time at the disposal of the office. 
Consequently the only possible course 
available was to examine the children in 
the school rooms, and on the basis of 
their observed bodily nutrition, the con- 
dition of their clothing, general appear- 
ance and such information as could be 
gained from their re.spective teachers and 
the principals of the schools, to estimate 
the number which should be rated as 
really necessitous cases. 

It is necessary to note that estimations 
made on such a basis as this give num- 
bers which are considerably in excess of 
the actual, inasmuch as they include 
children who are emaciated by reason of 
sickness, and on account of chronic nu- 
tritional defects, in addition to those 
whose food is poorly prepared and ill 
adapted to their constitutional needs. To 
allow for these factors, we have dis- 
counted the figures submitted, by 30 per 
cent, a procedure which was shown to be 
necessary by an intensive study of 
smaller groups. 

It is thought advisable to present the 
data collected in such detail as to indicate 
(a) the total number of children exam- 
ined in each school, (b) the number in 
each instance found needy as well as the 
proportion of the whole number examined 
who were probably not receiving suffi- 
cient food. Obviously one would not ex- 
pect to find the needy children equally 
distributed among the grades, since ex- 
treme poverty and the want of nutritious 
food act as deterrents to school progress. 
Indeed, the results of our regular exam- 
inations in the case of subnormal and 
backward children show that the lack of 
proper food is a large factor in inducing 
backwardness and subnormality. Conse- 
quently the data have also been distrib- 
uted so as to indicate the relative number 
of the necessitous in the different grades. 
All these are summarized in the accom- 
panying table. 

Grade V 
ade II. Grade III. Grade IV. and above. 



o c 



3 



O IK 



:3 

i^ o 



Goldsmith 

Washburne ... 48 11 

Smyth 36 4 

Foster 40 6 

Dante 50 7 

Dore 40 6 

Jones 38 6 

Jackson 46 5 

Jenner 30 4 

Schiller 81 13 

Walsh . 28 5 

Harrison 14 3 

Total number of children observed 

in 12 schools 10,090 

Total number rated as necessitous. 1,178 

Less 30 per cent (probable number 

actually necessitous in 12 schools) 825 

At the same ratio actual number 

necessitous in 54 schools 4,660 



o a 

HH 

164 
358 
445 
457 
403 
171 
234 
192 
323 
334 
182 
286 



O 0) 

zz 

29 
53 
43 
75 
41 
25 
35 
16 
55 
60 
20 
50 



o fl 
HH 

71 
179 
193 
347 
154 
247 

71 
217 
156 
115 
159 
182 



!3 
t3 O 

■^ «: 

. • o 
o <u 

zz 

14 
20 
20 
43 
14 
31 
8 
14 
21 
14 
11 
25 



o c 
hH 

70 
164 
323 
236 
418 
140 
105 
145 
151 
128 
92 
57 



13 



o o) 

zz 

10 
20 
23 
28 
34 
14 
13 
11 
16 
13 
7 



i^2 
o fl 



O 0) 

ZZ 



129 16 
* 

132 i3 

140 9 

82 5 

31 3 

Hi 14 

125 7 

86 6 

82 9 



o c 



313 
311 



84 

238 

86 

170 
216 



3 
V2 



o m 

27 
31 



* Owing to lack of time and the fact 
that the nuniber of ill-nourished fell off 
so markedly in the upper grades, for rea- 
sons heretofore given, the investigations 
in a number of schools, were confined to 
the children of the lower grades. 



15 



The table shows what is natural to ex- 
pect, that the largest number of underfed 
children are found in the lower grades. 
Taking the results from the twelve schools 
as a whole, it thus stands out that among 
children of kindergarten age, the per cent 
of underfed is 15.9, and for grades one. 
two, three, four and five and above the 
per cents respectively are: 13.8, 11.2, 9.6, 
9.0 and 5.9, showing a gradual decrease 
In numbers as we go up the grades. 
Furthermore, it is worthy of note that 
the total number of children showing' evi- 
dences of underfeeding is more than twice 
as larg-e in certain schools as in others, 
and therefore of course such a group of 
children would be more needy in any con- 
templated scheme of general feeding. A 
comparison of the number of needy chil- 
dren at such schools as Goldsmith, Har- 
rison and Schiller on the one hand and 
on the other the Sms^th and Jackson are 
instances in point of just such local dif- 
ferences and requirements. 

Neglecting now distributions and taking 
the children as a whole we find that of 
the •10,090 children examined there were 
picked out 1,178 necessitous cases, or ap- 
proximately 11 per cent. But if we bear 
in mind the suggestion made above rela- 
tive to discounting these figures by 30 
per cent, there were in these twelve 
schools approximately 7.8 per cent who 
were actually necessitous. Of course, it 
is difficult to determine to what extent 
these twelve schools are representative 
of conditions throughout the city, but as- 
suming that conditions are similar in the 
fifty-four schools selected, of which these 
twelve were taken as representative, there 
would be in the neigliborhood of 5,000 
children (4,660) who are daily attending 
school with insufficient nourishment. 

In confirmation of the fact already al- 
luded to, that malnutrition very fre- 
quently prevails among children who can- 
not m_ake school progress, it may be men- 
tioned that during the past three years, 
there have been examined by the Child 
Study Department, in the scnools and at the 
offices of the Board of Education, an ex- 
cess of 2,100 children, who may with pro- 
priety be classed as distinctly sub-nor- 
mal. On the basis of the records of these 
cases, which are filed in the office, we 
discovered that m the case of approxi- 
mately 55 per cent (54.6), the sub-nor- 
mality, in part at least, was attributable 
to malnutrition and insufficient food. 

Taking up the second main division of 
the request of your Committee, I present 
a short sketch of some of the essential 
features of the problem of feeding needy 
school children which some other large 
mu'iicipalities have encountered, together 
with certain pertinent facts in the history 
of such undertakings that may be sug- 
gestive for similar lines of work in Chi- 
cago. 

Paris. 

In the City of Paris, which has, by 
common consent, the best organized sys- 
tem of feeding school children, the prob- 
lem can be studied to the best advantage. 
The School Cantines (Cantines Scolaires) 
have come to be an accepted institution, 
though, to be sure, there are many who 
regard them as a doubtful blessing. The 
Cantine is a building attached to almost 



every school or group of schools, which 
serves as a kitchen and refectory for 
about three hundred children. The ad- 
ministration of these auxiliaries to the 
public schools rests with the mayor and 
a Schools Fund Committee in each of the 
twenty districts into which Paris is di- 
vided. This Committee on Treasury per- 
forms a singular social function. While 
in reality not a municipal body, it engages 
in public service in conjunction with the 
regularly recognized agencies. Their or- 
ganization (Caisse) was founded in 1849 ; 
was first recognized by law in 1867 and 
the law of 1882 imposed on them statu- 
tory obligations as institutions connected 
with schools. The primary object which 
attached to them centered about the at- 
tempts to encourage regular attendance 
at school by providing for children in 
want, all kinds of help, such as clothes, 
shoes, books, stationery, etc., and by giv- 
ing rewards and prizes to the best pupils. 
As an additional duty this society was 
expected to share, as far as it was able, 
in the cost of the "Cantines," besides 
contributing to country holidays, medical 
treatment, school savings banks, etc. The 
income, which, for example, in 1898 
amounted to 1,693,000 francs ($326,749). 
is derived from legacies, voluntary dona- 
tions, social entertainments and benefits, 
and the like. 

While this social guild furnished the 
means for conducting the school kitchens, 
the municipal council supplied the build- 
ings and equipment. In the early years 
the "Cantines" were nearly self-support- 
ing, inasmuch as the payment of meals 
covered the cost of food and' the service 
was voluntary and without cost. Eventual- 
ly the custom spread of giving free meals to 
pupils whose parents' names were enrolled 
on the records of the public bureau of 
charities (Bureau de Bienfaissance) at 
the expense of charitably inclined indi- 
viduals or associations or indeed of this 
semi-official guild or organization, con- 
nected with the schools. (Caisses de 
Ecoles.) 

Because these arrangements were in- 
complete and unorganized, a great deal 
of dissatisfaction prevailed. On this ac- 
count, in 1877, the Prefect of the Seine 
(the Seine corresponds roughly to Cook 
County in Illinois) appointed a commis- 
sion to investigate at length and report 
their findings with recommendations. It 
was found that in 1879 two hundred and 
eighty-two schools of the city had kitch- 
ens attached and one hundred nineteen 
schools had none. Ultimately the recom- 
mendations of the Prefect of the Seine 
were adopted, the chief of which were , 
that the proposal to give free meals to 
all children was rejected on the grounds 
of the "great cost and the grave moral 
dangers of freeing parents of the respon- 
sibility of their children and of destroy- 
ing the family spirit." Further, it was 
adopted to make general the scheme for 
feeding needy children, to organize the 
different agencies on uniform principles 
and to make the municipal grant for their 
support begin with 480,000 francs (about 
$92,640). 

In this scheme, the Caisses were ex- 
pected to provide whatever sums were 
required over and above the grants voted. 



16 



A system of furnishing ticlcets for chil- 
dren was adopted, making the tickets 
alike for poor and wealthy so that no 
stigma might attach to the poor and 
needy because they might be known to 
eat at these kitchens. In fact, the pat- 
ronage of the children of the well-to-do 
parents is solicited by making these meals 
attractive. If indeed a child who ought 
to pay receives a gift ticket his parents 
are afterward made to refund the ex- 
pense, and of course if, on the other hand, 
the investigators determine that the child's 
parents are too poor to pay the price, 
nothmg is demanded of them. The meals 
are throughout thoroughly supervised by 
officials, and it is even said that ninety 
per cent of the teachers assist in turns in 
looking after the children at meals. 

The history of these kitchens presents 
us with some interesting facts. It is seen, 
for instance, that the number of meals 
which were provided doubled in the 
twelve 5'ears from 1886 to 1898 (4,660,000 
to 9,230,000) while the subsidies granted 
by the municipality increased from 480,- 
000 francs (about $92,640) in 1880 to 
1,017,000 francs (about $196,281) in 1899. 
Tlie ratio of free to paid meals dispensed 
to the children increased enormously from 
1880 to 1898, or actually from 33 per cent 
to 63 per cent of the total number. 
Further, it became apparent that pay- 
ments fell away rapidly and that more 
payments were actually received from 
the poorest districts of the city than from 
the well-to-do. 

These and other findings and suspicions 
indicated that the situation should be in- 
vestigated and as a consequence some 
radical changes were effected, the most 
important of which were that the munici- 
pal grant was not to exceed 1,000,000 
francs (about $193,000) annually. The 
number of free meals, it can be readily 
seen, continued to grow, as the report of 
1904 indicates that in that year 13,395 
more free meals were given than in 1903, 
and the number paying for meals de- 
creased 1,040. 

These kitchens as institutions, however, 
continue to flourish and even to extend 
to the wealthy districts. In 1905 the 
wealthiest area of Paris, Madeliene, re- 
ported 1,165 of its 1,732 children as in- 
digents and received 1,447 francs from 
the council in the way of assistance. 

The reports summarizing the five years 
ending with 1905, show that the cost of 
providing a midday meal for 200 days in 
the year amounted annually on the aver- 
age to a little less than 1,400,000 francs 
(about $270,200) ; that during this time 
10,000,000 meals were given yearly on the 
average, and that these were furnished 
at an average cost of about 13 centimes 
(2% cents). To defray this total ex- 
pense 1,000,000 francs ($193,000) was re- 
ceived from the Municipal Council ; 360,- 
000 francs ($69,480) from payments and 
about 25,000 francs ($4,825) from volun- 
tary contributions held in fund by the 
Caisses. 

Of course, the accumulated experiences 
of this city enabled it to reduce the ex- 
penditures and to give better meals for 
the actual outlay. Thus for 15 centimes 
(about 3 cents) per meal, the report of a 
special committee shows that a meal of 



the following character can be furnished : 
bowl of good soup, plate of meat, two 
kinds of vegetables and as much bread 
as is desired. 

ENGLAND. 

There have been sporadic attempts to 
care for necessitous school children in 
different parts of Great Britain, which 
date back as far as twenty-five years, but 
not until the passage of the Foods Bill 
by Parliament last year have counties 
been legally able to render any assistance 
to charitable organizations or benevolent 
enterprises which have had the work of 
feeding poor school children in hand. And 
if we may judge by the comment of the 
press and tlie opinion of prominent char- 
ity workers expressed through their local 
organs, the Foods Bill is not an untem- 
pered blessing, if indeed it is not a posi- 
tive evil. 

Many eminent authorities are convinced 
that as soon as the provisions of the bill 
become effective it will result in greater 
parental indifference i-n looking after the 
needs of their children. Parents will be- 
come indifferent about getting work. It 
will tend to lower wages, in that part of 
the burden of the family care is taken 
over by the state. Where the noonday 
lunch is furnished by the school, mothers 
will be encouraged to leave their chil- 
dren and go to work, thus robbing the 
children of an important element in super- 
vision during the noon recess. Then, too, 
the amount of home life will be dimin- 
ished ; children will tend to become more 
independent of their parents and the in- 
fluence of the latter will be proportion- 
ally lessened. But chiefest of all, the ob- 
jection is made that the already over- 
burdened school teachers and supervisors 
are robbed of their needed noon recess by 
I'eason of the children's congregating 
about the school buildings as soon as their 
light lunches have been eaten, thus calling 
for supervision. 

The provisions of the English Foods Bill 
passed by Parliament in the winter of 
1907-8 are in brief the following: Local 
educational boards are given power to 
raise loans and to spend money in order 
to provide buildings ; and to employ offi- 
cials for preparing, cooking and serving 
meals. But only in extreme cases and 
after obtaining the consent of County 
Council are they permitted to spend money 
on actual food supplies, and then only to 
the extent of a rate not to exceed i/^d. 
on a pound (about 4 mills). Local edu- 
cational authorities are urged as far as 
possible to associate themselves with and 
encourage the continuance of voluntary 
agencies. The law relating to the pun- 
ishment of negligent parents was strength- 
ened and provisions made for enforcing 
the payment for meals in advance, in 
those cases where parents are found able. 
Meals were not to be served in school 
rooms and no teacher or supervisor is to 
be compelled either to take part in or re- 
frain from taking part in the work of dis- 
pensing meals, or the supervising of chil- 
dren while they are eating. 

The passage of the Foods Bill was the 
culmination of an extended season of ani- 
mated argument and acrimonious debate, 
in the press as well as on the floor of the 
House of Commons, and from the dis- 



17 



cussions it appears that for the most 
part the school men and charity workers 
wei'e arrayed against the bill, while it 
was being supported by the labor party 
and the medical associations. It was 
through the importunities of the medical 
organizations of the United Kingdom that 
the House of Commons was prevailed upon 
to select a committee which should look 
into the conditions of poverty obtaining 
among school children in London and 
other large centers of population as well 
as to make a census of what is being done 
by private charity to furnish food to 
necessitous children in the board (public) 
schools. The report of this committee, 
known as the "Inter-departmental Com- 
mittee on Medical Inspection and Feeding 
of Children Attending Public Elementary 
Schools," covering several hundred quarto 
pages, was presented to Parliament in the 
winter of 1906-7. It offers some rather 
illuminating figures relating both to pov- 
erty among the school population and to 
the scope of the work of charity in re- 
lieving it. 

London. 

Dr. Eichholtz, one of the inspectors of 
schools for London, reported to the com- 
mittee that as a result of investigations 
at the Johanna Street Public School, in 
which conditions are typical of those in a 
large number of the schools of the poorer 
districts, 90 per cent of the children are 
found unable to attend to their school 
work properly because of their poor phys- 
ical conditions. During six months of 
the school year 33 per cent of the chil- 
dren required feeding. On the strength 
of these investigations and other obser- 
vations. Dr. Eichholtz estimated the num- 
ber of underfed children in London to be 
60,000. In Manchester 15 per cent of the 
school children were held to be underfed 
and consequently unable to profit fully 
from their school attendance. 

That the above figures are probably ex- 
aggerated appears from the experience of 
the Salvation Army in London during the 
same winter (1904-5). The charity or- 
ganization had reported that between 60,- 
000 and 70,000 children were going break- 
fastless to school, and in consequence the 
Salvation Army opened free kitchens near 
most of the schools in the poorer dis- 
tricts. But these were poorly patronized 
and had finally to be discontinued, al- 
though they had been widely and thor- 
oughly advertised. 

The extent and scope to which the feed- 
ing of the necessitous school children is 
carried on in the different cities of Eng- 
land is astonishing when compared with 
the little being done in our own country. 
Conservative estimates place the number 
fed yearly in London alone at 30,000, or 
between 5 per cent and 6 per cent of all 
in the schools. The Referee, a cosmo- 
politan newspaper, has been devoting its 
whole income amounting to 4.000 pounds 
($20,000) annually to the feeding of poor 
school children during the past twenty- 
eight years. "The London Schools Din- 
ner Association" and "The Destitute Chil- 
dren's Dinner Society" are other guilds 
which have been working in the same 
fields for twenty years or more. 

In the year 1899 there was created by 
the London School Board a Joint Com- 



mittee on Underfed Children, which was 
to assist and direct the work of the pri- 
vate organizations, and also aid in the 
work of raising funds. Something of the 
magnitude of the work in London during 
recent years may be gained from the fol- 
lowing summary of the number of differ- 
ent children fed per week and the num- 
ber of meals given out. 

Children on average fed 



Year. 




per week. 


Meals Given 


1900-1 




18,857 






1901-2 




20,085 




46,619 


1902-3 




22,206 




54,572 


1903-4 




23,842 




56,109 


1904-5 




26,951 




66,006 


1905-6 


In 


excess of 30,000 





Meals are provided usually from 
Thanksgiving to Easter but not in most 
instances on every day of the week. In 
fact, in 16 schools children are fed on one 
day only; in 90 schools on two days per 
week; in 61 schools on three days per 
week ; in 41 schools on more than three 
days per week. In many of the schools 
children are asked to pay %d. (1 cent), 
when at least 2 ounces of meat is included 
in the meal. In some of the schools, not- 
ably "Limehouse," teachers at their own 
expense provide hot milk and bread to 
any child desiring it. 

Chaucer School, with an enrollment of 
1,357, had 501 children who were being 
fed. Ninety-five per cent of the children 
of this school asked for free meals. Yet 
in the same neighborhood children seemed 
to have money in plenty for sweets and 
cigarettes. 

In London the cost per meal has varied 
from Yad. to l^d. (1 to 3 cents). Chil- 
dren dislike oatmeal and other porridges, 
else the cost would be still less. 

Bradford. 

Before the autumn of 1904, the feed- 
ing of necessitous school children in Brad- 
ford was done by private philanthropic en- 
terprises but under the direction of the 
local educational authorities. That is, the 
teachers selected the deserving cases and 
investigated the home conditions of each 
so far as practicable. They dispensed 
and supervised the meals. During the 
winter months the dinners are not given 
at the schools but in five select centers. 
On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays 
the dietary consisted of soup and bread, or 
rice pudding. Tuesdays and Thursdays 
hash, bread and rice pudding were pro- 
vided, and on Saturday the children were 
furnished with corned beef sandwiches, 
currant buns with te.a or cocoa. The high- 
est number of children on the feeding list 
was 2,500 of a total school population of 
55,000. From January 1, 1905, to June 
30th, 232,222 meals were provided at a 
cost of 1,569.6 pounds ($7,848). The cost 
of a single meal, exclusive of service, was 
l%d. to 2d. 

It was discovered that frequently those 
in charge were being imposed upon. To 
arrive at a definite basis the principle was 
followed that no free meals be given 
to children from homes where the income 
per week exceded 3s. per capita after de- 
ducting rent. Neither were free meals 



18 



given in those instances where poverty 
was shown to be the result of drunkenness 
or neglect. Bradford is the only one of 
a number of cities which make use of a 
poverty scale in determining the needy. 

Sheffield. 

In Shefheld free meals in the form of 
breakfasts have been provided the needy 
school children since November, 1905. The 
work rests with private philanthropy and 
is continued from November to April, dur- 
ing the winter months. The cost is about 
Is. Id. per portion, inclusive of all ex- 
penses. The breakfast consists of cocoa 
with bread and dripping, or jam. 

Liverpool. 

Liverpool has only one agency for the 
provision of school meals. It is supported 
wholly by voluntary contributions. The 
meals are given in the schools at a cost 
of i/>d. per portion. During the winter 
of 1905-6 200,000 meats were supplied 
and it was estimated that the number fed 
represented only about two-thirds of the 
needy cases. 

Birmingham. 

In the city of Birmingham a dinner of 
soup, bread and jam is provided to the 
necessitous cases in canvas enclosures 
in the playgrounds during five days of 
the week. The work is under the patron- 
age of the "Birmingham School Cheap 
Dinner Society." A Mr. Hooker provides 
breakfasts in fourteen of the poorest 
schools. Between 1,600 and 1,700 are fed 
during the winter months. The worthy 
cases are picked out by the teachers and 
dependence is placed upon the reports of 
the children to eliminate those who might 
receive aid needlessly. 

Manchester. 

Early in the year of 1907 the provision 
of meals for ill-nourished or necessitous 
children was undertaken by the Educa- 
tion Committee and the Medical OfHcer 
was requested to examine and certify all 
such cases. Meals were provided in seven 
centers, covering 43 schools with an ag- 
gregate average attendance of 25,759. All 
children of these schools were examined 
by the Medical Officer and 1,511 selected 
and personally examined, meal tickets be- 
ing then issued to 1,208. Of this number, 
the parents of 1,026 accepted the pro- 
vision of food. The routine followed is that 
the teachers provide lists of the children 
whom they consider proper cases for the 
provision of meals. The children so se- 
lected, with any further cases found on 
inspection, are then individually examined 
by the Medical Officer, who at the same 
time, elicits such information as is pos- 
sible regarding the home conditions, etc. 
Some urgent cases are provided with 
tickets at once, but the majority are re- 
ferred for investigation to the truant of- 
ficers. The truant officers' reports and 
the medical officers' notes are then com- 
pared and tickets issued to those found 
eligible. The diet provided for the chil- 
dren, while inexpensive, is both nourish- 
ing and palatable, due regard being paid 
in each day's diet to the constituents nec- 
essary for the provision of a satisfactory 
meal. At present eight varieties of diet 
are provided. 



It is unnecessary to refer to more cities. 
Indeed, what has been outlined is typical 
of such other cities as Norwich, Bristol, 
Bolton and some dozen others. 

The English Foods Bill has been in 
operation for one winter only, but it is 
instructive to note the effect of its op- 
eration. In the first place, only a few of 
the County Councils have been willing to 
give the local educational authorities the 
necessary consent to furnish meals at 
public cost, and where permission has 
been given the results have shown that 
poverty is not nearly so prevalent as the 
earlier reports indicated. The law pro- 
vides that application for meals must be 
made by the children or their parents and 
free meals provided only after the home 
conditions have been thoroughly investi- 
gated. In Norwich 579 applications were 
received, but all but- 112 found unworthy. 
In Bristol, of 129 applications only 12 
were found worthy. In Bolton, only 41 
were found on investigation to be worthy 
of a total number of 528 applications re- 
ceived. There were no applications at all 
received in Liverpool and in Birmingham, 
where the Birmingham Free Dinner So- 
ciety had been feeding 4,000, investigation 
disclosed only 200 as really in need of 
free feeding. Mr. Hooker continued to 
feed 2,000, but the Birmingham Free Din- 
ner Society went out of existence. It was 
found that one parent whose children were 
being fed had an income on an average 
of 8 pounds ($40) a week. During the 
winter of 1906-7 1,300 pounds ($6,500) 
was spent for free meals in Bradford, but 
3 pounds ($15) only recovered from the 
parents. Thus, in general, it may be 
said that the results of the provisions for 
feeding necessitous school children in 
English cities are unsatisfactory. 

GERMANY. 

In Germany the feeding of poor school 
children, or the "Schulspeisung fur ai-mer 
Kinder," has been carried on more or less 
extensively for twenty-five years. As a 
result of a careful investigation looking 
toward an improvement of the conditions 
of childhood, Professor Cuno (Fur sorge 
fur armer Schulkinder), in 1906, found 
that in seventy-nine municipalities of the 
empire of a population of 2 0,000 or more, 
something was being done in the way of 
providing school children with food. Since 
that date the number has increased, al- 
though we are in the possession of no 
statistics indicating how many there are 
at present date. The almost invariable 
rule in Germany seems to be that the pro- 
vision of meals rests with local charitable 
organizations usually designated as 
"Schulspeis Vereinen," and that in turn 
the local governing bodies make good the 
deficits or contribute specified sums to- 
ward the expenses which the provision of 
meals incur. In some cities the destitute 
school children are provided with break- 
fasts only. In other ■ cities a noonday 
lunch is given, while in still others the 
poor children receive both breakfast and 
dinners. 

Regarding the places where the meals 
or lunches are given there is likewise no 
uniformity. In some municipalities break- 
fasts are dispensed in the school rooms 
before the opening of the sessions, while 



19 



in others rooms adjacent to the schools 
are furnished witli the necessary equip- 
ment for preparing the food as well as 
suitable benches and tables from which 
the meals are to be eaten. Almost uni- 
formly the needy cases are first picked 
out by the teachers from their respective 
rooms. The home conditions in each par- 
ticular instance are then inquired into 
by the officials of the Speisverein and those 
fed only where the needs are found to be 
particularly grave. Admission to meals 
is by ticket, but parents are urged to con- 
tribute what they are able to the cost of 
feeding their children, though it needs to 
be mentioned that the sums thus received 
from parents amount to little. 

It will be interesting to pass in review 
briefly what is actually being done in a 
few representative cities of the German 
Empire. 

Bei'lin. 

There are in Berlin two associations 
whose objects are the provision of meals 
for necessitous children. The first was 
organized about twenty-five^ years ago, 
while the second was established in 1S93. 
During the earlier years of the first or- 
ganization each child known to be in want 
of sufficient food was given a glass of 
milk and a piece of bread, but during re- 
cent years the dietarj^ is varied by added 
soup, vegetables, beans, millet or some 
form of meat on occasions. Save in in- 
ternal organization the two societies do 
not differ significantly. 

Something of the scale upon which the 
feeding of school children is carried on 
may be apparent from the reports of the 
Berlin Speis Vereinen for the winter of 
1905-6. Poor children in 230 of the 282 
schools of the city were provided with 
midday meals in thirteen kitchens or cen- 
ters at a cost of 13,264 marks. 534,741 
portions were served, of which all but 
80,418 portions were free. Toward the 
expense incurred by the provisions of 
these meals the city contributed but 3,000 
marks, which is the annual allowance, 
leaving by far the greater proportion to 
come from philanthropic sources. The 
societies are able to care for the wants 
of between three and four thousand chil- 
dren only owing to the lack of funds, 
while during the winter of 1906-7, more 
than 10,000 were discovered on investi- 
gation to be attending school without din- 
ners. An investigation made under the 
auspices of the "Vereinen" of the children 
in three schools in North Berlin, where 
the parents are extremely poor, showed 
that 7-9 per cent of the children remained 
at school or partook of coffee only at 
noon. In 70-74 per cent of the cases the 
children received only coffee and white 
bread, and in 11-23 per cent only was 
there added to the midday meals of the 
children soup, milk, meat or other nu- 
trient element. 

Dr. Bernhardt, school physician for 
Berlin, bitterly impeaches the civil au- 
thorities' indifferent attitude toward her 
starving population and especially in the 
face of the fact that for 5 pfg. {2% cents) 
per portion a child can be given all the 
lentil soup and bread he can eat. Dr. 
Bernhardt's observations covered 8,451 
children, of whom he discovered that 578 



were regularly coming breakfastless to 
school. Large numbers of the children 
too were receiving their first meal for the 
day in the evening. Conditions, however, 
are perhaps worse in Berlin than other 
cities of Germany, though it seems pro- 
portionately less is being done to render 
relief. 

Manheim. 

In Manheim breakfasts are provided 
almost wholly at the cost of the state. 
The selection of the necessitous cases lies 
with a special committee organized to 
carry on this particular work (Kommis- 
sion fur Speisung armer Schulkinder). 
Each poor child is provided with bread 
and one-half pint of milk, and the food 
is given in the schoolrooms before the 
beginning of the morning session. Dur- 
ing the winter of 1905-6 3.105 children 
were fed at a cost of 21,322 marks ($5,400 
approximately), for which the city fur- 
nished funds in full. 13,445 marks 
($3,330) for 67,229 quarts of milk and 
6,086 marks ($1,516) for 247,448 loaves 
of bread. 

Breslau. 

Needy children in both Evangelical and 
Catholic schools of Breslau-^47 of the 
former, 30 of the latter — are provided 
with bread and milk or bread and coffee^ 
free of cost. In 1892 the record shows' 
that 57,215 portions had been served, the 
funds for this purpose having been raised 
partly by city appropriation and partly 
through private benevolent endeavors. 

Munchen. ( Munich. ) 

In this city a free meal, consisting of 
bread and soup, is served to the necessi- 
tous children after investigation by the 
charity organization. The cost of a single 
portion is about 2^2 cents. 

Mains. 

About 1,300 children of Mainz are fed 
annually at a cost of 4,292 marks 
($1,073). In this city the teachers have 
voluntarily taken the matter into their own 
hands and bear the expenses the meals' 
provision incurs. 

Hamburg. 

The city authorities of Hamburg assist 
the charitable organizations to about 12,- 
000 marks ($3,000) annually, and chil- 
dren are fed in kitchens separated from 
the schools. 

Frankfort-on-Main. 

The Verein for feeding poor children 
attending schools in Frankfort spent dur- 
ing the winter of 1904-5 24,500 marks, 
of which the greater portion was raised 
through private enterprise. Something 
like 2.362 different children were fed dur- 
ing the greater part of the winter sea- 
son. More cities might be cited but the 
above afford sufficient typical examples 
of what is being done in Germany. 

DENMARK. 

In 1902 a school meals law was passed 
by the Council of the Kingdom of Den- 
mark which permits school committees, 
when they see fit. to assist private char- 
ities in the matter of providing food to 
necessitous school children. 



20 



SWITZERLAND. 

In Switzerland the matter of school 
meals is left largely to the individual 
cantons. The question has come to the 
front in Switzerland, however, not because 
of the prevalence of poverty, but chiefly 
on account of long- and difficult journeys 
niany of the pupils find it necessary to 
make to reach the educational centers, 
thus precluding the possibility of their 
returning to their homes for luncheon 
during the noon recess. Luncheons arc 
consequently provided only in certain 
schools in the mountain sections of the 
country and to those children only who 
find it practically impossible to repair to 
their homes for a noondaj' meal. Zurich 
alone forms an exception to the general 
principle just laid down. In this city the 
municipality' partiallj^ provides for the 
needy. The latest statistics available re- 
late to the winter of 1903-4. During that 
winter approximately 3,000 children were 
furnished a noonday meal from December 
to April at a total cost of 42,296 francs 
of which 32,523 francs came from the 
city's treasury. 

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. 

So far as can be learned the feeding 
of needy school children is carried on 
more extensively in Vienna and Buda- 
pest than in any other cities of the em- 
pire. I can best indicate the status of the 
problem in the city of Vienna, where, for 
many years, this question, has been one 
of great social concern. The information 
lelative to this enterprise is derived from 
private communications from persons in 
the city of Vienna, and from the anniial 
report of one of the most influential char- 
itable organizations of that city for the 
year 1906-07. (Zentralverein zur Be- 
kostig-ung armer Schulkinder in Wien). 

Quoting from Dr. Burgerstein in reply 
to pointed questions, the statement is made 
that "legal obstacles do not exist at all 
in the way of the city's spending money 
as it sees fit in behalf of the needy school 
children. This, however, it does not per- 
form directly. The aldermen vote sums 
of money varying from j^ear to j^ear about 
700,000 crowns (or $200,000) annually 
to assist private charitable societies in 
providing lunches, clothes, and so on for 
poor children. The city also pays the 
expenses connected with the details of ad- 
ministration of these societies. There are, 
for example, charitable organizations 
which arrange for the feeding of poor 
people at particular stations in the city. 
These societies, especially interested in 
school children, take advantage of this 
opportunity and purchase tickets of the 
other organizations for the use of the 
needy children, and thus the pupils can 
eat in these dining halls or in the schools 
themselves to which the food is carried for 
them at luncheon time. For this pur- 
pose the city grants the free use of gym- 
nasium halls in the schools. The prob- 
lem of centralizing and unifying these dif- 
ferent societies is a difficult thing to bring 
about, although all agree that much more 
effective work is accomplished by some 
sort of organized co-operation between 
different bodies representing the 2,000,000 
inhabitants. Quite frequently this closer 
contact of societies and city is brought 



about by having some of the chief offi- 
cers of the private organization chosen 
from municipal officials. Thus it has oc- 
curred in the greatest of these charitable 
societies, that persons of the elected repre- 
sentation CGemeinderat,' 'Stadrat'). 
and administration of the city ('Magis- 
trat') were members of the active com- 
mittees or even president of such com- 
mittees. Therefore, it may be said that 
the part which the city plaj^s directly 
in this enterprise of feeding the needy 
children consists in allowing the use of 
municipal properties such as school rooms 
for kmcheons, it does not wish the burden 
of details connected with their admini- 
stration, but it is willing to co-operate 
with any private organization which is 
able and willing to assume the responsibil- 
ity of the undertaking. If the teachers 
will select the needy school children, and 
the city co-operate in any duly recognized 
social organization, these problems of city 
life can be handled to the satisfaction of 
all." 

AMERICA. 

There are at hand no reliable data con- 
cerning the number of needy children nor 
the attempts at their relief in our own 
countrj'. The number of actually neces- 
sitous children in large centers of popu- 
lation has been variously estimated. Some 
place it as high as 35 per cent, of all 
school children in poorer districts of the 
cities, while other social workers esti- 
mate the number at less than one-third 
of this, or about 10 per cent, of the school 
population in certain very poor districts. 
It is pretty certain that even this lesser 
number is entirely too high, although it 
must be remembered that the actual num- 
ber of school children suffering in this re- 
spect is contingent upon many temporary 
and changeable factors of the localities in- 
vestigated, and, as might be expected, 
there is little or no uniformity among in- 
vestigators in the standards of estima- 
tion. But it must not be forgotten that 
the relatively graver needs of a few chil- 
dren may constitute just as aggravat- 
ing a social and educational problem as 
the proportionately lesser ones of a large 
number. Furthermore, there is no record 
with which we are acquainted that any 
municipality in this country undertakes 
directly the feeding of its more necessitous 
school children, so that we look in vain 
for examples of experience that might 
assist us to project a feasible scheme to 
extend the scope of work of relief in the 
city of Chicago, should such a project be 
deemed advisable. 

Chicago. 

To be sure, in our own city there have 
been meager attempts in certain of the 
schools to supplj- food to children who 
were receiving so little food at home that 
their health was being noticeably under- 
mined. . In most cases these attempts 
have been temporary only. A noticeable 
exception is that of the Goldsmith School. 
On February 19. 1902 (Proceedings of 
Board of Education, page 335). an or- 
ganization of philanthropic women af- 
filiated with the Sinai Congregation — the 
Johanna Lodge — secured authority from 
the Board of Education to prepare and 
furnish simple luncheons to very needy 



21 



children of the Goldsmith School, at the 
price of one cent per meal. Since that 
date, the feeding of the needy has been 
carried on, and regarding the success of 
the work and the extent of its opera- 
tion, I cannot do better than quote the 
following communication received from 
Mr. Hornbecker, until last year the prin- 
cipal of the Goldsmith School, and under 
whose inspiration the plan was first in- 
augurated : 

"The Oliver Goldsmith School is situated 
in the heart of the Russian-Jewish district 
on the West Side. The school contains 
about 1,100 pupils, and was opened in 
September, 1901, to relieve the Foster and 
Washburne schools. The poverty and dis- 
tress among the pupils was soon noticed 
by the teachers, who took upon themselves 
the task of clothing and even feeding 
many children. Some friendly visitors, 
working in the neighborhood, visited the 
school, and I called their attention to the 
great needs of the children. Mrs. Hannah 
Newman, Mrs. Hannah Moss and Mrs. E. 
G. Hirsch, among others, suggested that 
lunches might be served in the school. 
Permission was obtained from the Board 
of Education to serve simple lunches and 
to charge a penny a meal. This did not 
pay expenses, but the intention was to 
make the child feel that he was paying 
for what he received and that he was not 
an object of charity. The trouble of col- 
lection was great, and often the child 
who was most in need had no penny, so 
the practice of charging for the meal was 
abandoned. 

"At first, many children refused to eat 
because the food was not prepared by one 
of their religious faith. This difficulty 
was obviated by hiring a Jewish woman 
of the neighborhood to do the work. No 
attempt was made to serve anything but 
oatmeal with sugar and milk and bread. 

"From February, 1902, to the present 
time, any child of the Goldsmith School 
who was hungi^y could get all he could eat 
of this simple fare without cost. We 
found that many children had been sitting 
uncomplainingly all day without a bit of 
food. Often the mother had nothing to 
give them for breakfast ; went away look- 
ing for work, Ijeaving the house locked 
up. At noon the child had nothing to eat 
because the mother had not returned. No 
one, having seen the joy on the faces of 
those little ones at the prospect of un- 
limited food before them, can ever forget 
it. The ladies mentioned brought the 
matter before their organization — the Jo- 
hanna Lodge — and no difficulty was met 
in obtaining the necessary funds. An ac- 
cuT-ate account was kept of all the money 
expended but not of the meals served. 
The expenditures were: 1903-04, $188.47; 
1904-05, $216.95; 1905-06, $270.00; 1906- 
1907, $250.00. 

"From 40 to 70 meals were served each 
day at an average cost of 2y^ cents, not 
to exceed 3 cents, per meal. The cost of 
service was the largest item, $3.00 per 
week. Teachers' reports from time to 
time showed marked improvement in the 
general health and school work of the 
little children, especially those in the 
, Kindergarten. We believe that the lives 
'of several children were saved. At first, 
children who did not need the food went 



to the lunch-room out of curiosity. This 
led to serving the meals just after school 
was called, at 9 and at 1 o'clock. The 
teacher then permitted the deserving ones 
to go to the lunch-roorti. I am sure that 
in the poor districts of Chicago there is 
no greater educational need than simple 
lunch-Fooms, and if they are properly 
managed, there is no danger of pauperiz- 
ing the pupil. The money expended will 
return to the state ten-fold by making 
self-respecting citizens, capable of earn- 
ing their own living, out of children who 
might become charges on the state, either 
through poverty or crime." 

During the past year, as a result of the 
investigations at the Harrison School by 
the Department of Child Study, showing 
that some of the children were handi- 
capped in their school work because they 
did not receive sufficient food at home, 
the principal and teachers at the school, 
at their own expense, undertook to pro- 
vide some food for the extremely needy. 
The food consisted chiefly of milk and 
crackers, and the work was continued 
until the close of the last school year. 
Again, during the latter part of the last 
year, the Crane Day Nursery were benevo- 
lent enough to yield to the representations 
of the principal of the Dore School, and 
furnished, after the requisite authority 
had been granted, a wholesome luncheon 
to all the pupils of the special room for 
subnormal children who wished to avail 
themselves of this provision. The need 
of some such provision was brought to 
the principal's attention through the re- 
ports from the Child Study Department 
on the cases individually as they entered 
the special room. The meals, in this case, 
were eaten in the school-room under the 
supervision of the teacher in charge, but 
because of the amount of time, effort and 
energy thus consumed by the teacher, it 
was considered inadvisable to continue the 
meal-provision. 

Suggestions. 

If the history of the meals-provision in 
foreign cities shows anything, it clearly 
gives evidence of the fact that the in- 
evitable outcome of the feeding of poor 
children at public expense, means a meals- 
provision for all pupils of the public 
schools — those from the homes of the rich 
and well-to-do as well as from the poor. 
Where meals are provided at the expense 
of the state or municipality, sooner or 
later the parents of all the children feel 
that they have a right to participate in 
the meals-provision. It was pointed out 
that in Madelaine, a well-to-do district 
in Paris, which compares favorably with 
the North Shore section of this city, 1,165 
of the school population of 1,732 asked 
for free meals-provision. And, if we can 
credit the experience of Norwich, Bristol, 
Manchester, Bolton, Liverpool and Bir- 
mingham, in England, only between 15 and 
20 per cent, of those making application 
for free meals were found to be really 
necessitous, and this, indeed, during the 
first year's operation of the act for pro- 
viding meals for needy school children. 

It seems reasonably safe to assume, 
therefore, that it is, at present, inad- 
visable for the City of Chicago to under- 
take the feeding of her needy children 



22 



on other than indirect lines. Private and 
public charities should be encouraged to 
reach, through their regxilar local branches, 
children who are really in need. In fact, 
the City Authorities and Board of Educa- 
tion should not only encourage such bene- 
ficiary and philanthropic undertakings, 
but might actually co-operate by placing 
at their disposal certain rooms in the 
school buildings, and assist in the gen- 
eral work of supervision of applicants and 
the conduct of meals, somewhat similar 



to the plan which has been followed in 
the schools for crippled children. 

It is even probable that nothing further 
ought to be undertaken in a positive way 
by the Civic Authorities than that of pro- 
viding a suitable place where meals can 
be prepared and dispensed. By this means, 
in a large measure, the positive benefits 
are secured with the attendent evils com- 
paratively lessened. 

Respectfully, 

D. P. MacMillan, 

Director of Child Study and 

Pedagogical Investigation. 



23 



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